


The foreigner of Amínd

by AthetaNeothite



Category: Original Work
Genre: Blood, Death, Dragon(s) - Freeform, Dragon/Human, Dragons are basically protective flying puppies, Explicit Language, Fantasy, Fantasy World, M/M, Magic, Original Dragon Character(s) - Freeform, Original Human Character(s) - Freeform, Suggestive Themes, Work In Progress, im so sorry, it's going to get worse, more tags will be added, shadow creature
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-03-09 07:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 24,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13476456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AthetaNeothite/pseuds/AthetaNeothite
Summary: As Wess wakes up to find himself in the care of a Dragon in a foreign word without any memory, he has to learn to adapt to the new rules of this unknown world. But with a shadow growing stronger in the horizon and Wess evolving feelings for his caretaker how will this chaos ensue?(This is my first ever attempt at posting a story so it's bound to have some issues)Next update: DelayedSo an update on the delay: I am currently struggling with a really big writers block and am unable to progress as of right now, I don't know when I will manage to push through this thing but I will give you my word, I will not let this stop me from continuing this thing. But until I actually get past it, this thing is going to be on a hiatus for the moment.





	1. New world

**Author's Note:**

> So this is going to be my first story that I actually publish, so its bound to have some issues. I would greatly appreciate if you share your opinions about the story and how I could grow as a writer since im still quite new to this. I dont really know where this story is going to go since I write mostly from ideas I come up with on the spot but if you might have any suggestions PLEASE do share them with me. I dont really think I have much more to say so im just going to end this off here. Without further ado, Enjoy. (if possible)

You open your eyes and find yourself staring up at the starlit midnight sky. You don't have any memory of how you got here. When tried to think about it you realize that… you couldn't remember anything.

A warm gust of wind blew past your face as you laid clueless about how you actually got there, and where you are, for that matter.

It took you a moment of staring blankly into the sky before you noticed large black wing covering most of your body. The wing restricted most of your movement and made it quite hard to see where you actually are.

You glanced to your right to find a large creature, maybe about twice your size if not more, right beside you. The breathing of the creature created the so called gust of wind blowing past your face in calm succession.

The creature had mostly black scales and white ones covering the bottom of its jaw and continuing down the throats towards its chest. Its mouth was slightly agape but instead of the regular red flesh colour it was a light neon green shade. It seemed that was the natural colour for the tissue since the inside of its nose and ears also shared that colour.

Its horns were mostly black but it also had that neon green in small and short circles around the base of the horn.

Upon further inspection the creature resembled some sort of dragon. You determined that it was fast asleep so you continued inspecting its body. It would feel like you should have been afraid of it but somehow you weren't. Just the peaceful way it laid there sleeping, gave you a sense of serenity.

You moved a little closer and placed your hands against the white scales on its stomach. Before you know what happened you were pinned to the ground by the dragon. It trapped you underneath itself and secured your arms above your head and under the weight of its front appendages.

Your heart started racing as its eyes stared straight into yours with a piercing glare as if trying to find out your intentions. Your breathing became more and more uneven and it almost felt like your heart would burst out of your chest at any moment.

The serious look on its face melted into a much more friendly and calm one as it moved some of its weight off of you. It kept holding you firmly though now in a much less threatening fashion.

“Well hello there, someone finally decided to wake up.”  

Its voice was smooth and calm as it registered in your brain. The voice sounded like it would be a male but since you knew nothing about what this creature actually is, so you wouldn't actually be able to make an educated guess on it.

It released your arms from the large paws of itself and you were finally able to move freely. The large creature continued to hover above your body, but it was certainly nice to have all of that weight removed off of you.

The glowing green eyes analysed you as you raised your body slightly off the ground. You gave yourself a moment to compose yourself before you spoke up.

“Where… where am I..? And… what are you..?”

The beast recoiled slightly as your questions escaped your mouth. It almost seemed as it was confused for a moment. With a quick shake of it’s head it recomposed itself and returned to its calm demeanor.

“I'm what your kind would call a monster, or more specifically, a dragon, but if you wish, you can call me Era’Tilos. Where right by my nest, I found you unconscious by a river while I was out hunting so I decided to take you back here and take care of you.”

It was a lot of information to be dumped on you at this moment and you didn't pick all of it up, though you managed to understand the most useful information. You gave… Era’Tilos… a slow nod and as you did that their large paw moved towards your face. One of the dragon’s claws carefully moved a few strands of hair off your face and back over your ear.

The dragon gave you a goofy grin and you responded with an uncertain chuckle. The action was just… odd at this moment. The dragon turned around and ambled away towards an entrance to a cave a few meters away from their current location. They stopped right outside of the entrance and turned it’s head and looked at you.

“Well? What are you waiting for? come in!”

“Oh, umm… right.”

You responded quickly and pushed yourself off the ground to chase after the beast. Era’Tilos waited for you to catch up with themself as if they wanted you to go inside of the nest first.

The moon shone its silver rays into the cave lighting up the inside with a calm white glow. It was still quite hard to see into the cave but you could make out a few shelves carved into the wall with a few books scattered around the place. There was also a few medallions hung up on the walls all of them with different patterns and crystals of some sort.

You glanced back at Era’Tilos then back to the nest. It looked much more… humane than what you expected a dragon’s nest to be. There was two other rooms further in, but you couldn’t see what was inside of them, or how large they were. With a few uneasy steps you entered the cave with Era’Tilos close behind you.

“It might not be that special but nothing a little fixing up can’t do. We could maybe get some sort of-”

“Wait, wait, hold on a minute-”

You quickly spun around towards the dragon. This all felt so weird, like it wasn't _really_ real. There was also a lot of questions that you had about… well, everything. You collected all of your thoughts before you continued speaking.

“Just why are you doing all of this for me? You’ve been really nice and all, but… why? It all just seem a little too, convenient.”

Era'Tilos let out a deep sigh and their relaxed posture turned into something of an sad demeanor. Their eyes turned away from you and looked away towards nothing in specific, as if they was scared to look at you like they would hurt you. You realized that what you said could maybe was a little too much, they didn’t seem like they meant anything bad, everything was just all so foreign to you.

The beast didn’t look back at you, they continued to look away from you trying to avoid eye contact with you as much as possible. This wasn’t what you wanted out of your questions and it all made you feel quite bad.

“No, I didn’t mea-”

“No. It’s an understandable question”

You tried to speak up but was almost instantly cut off by Era’Tilos. The beast let out a deep sigh before continuing to speak, finally turning their head back to look at you.

“I can see why you’re so confused over this. I should have expected you to ask these questions. I suppose i’ve been isolated up here for far too long and I have been missing any kind of company, so when I found you I saw my chance and I... took it.”

The dragons expression was sad but was also had some kind of undertone of understanding. A small smile slowly crept back onto their face, though unlike the ones before, this one felt genuine, like it really meant something.

“Not like those are the only reasons, there are so much more than that. I understand if you want to leave, I will not stop you.”

You didn’t really have much choice in the matter since you had nowhere else to go, and not having any memories didn’t help either. This was the only thing you could do as of right now, and it was what you _wanted to do_. It felt like you were home.

“I don’t really have anywhere else to go, so staying here wouldn't be a problem. I was just confused, you know?”

You looked back into the cave, now almost completely lit up as the moon moved closer to the horizon. It did look really cozy, with plants growing around the walls and a small pool of water further into the right of the nest. The jewelry reflected the silver light of the moon giving the crystal an almost divine glow. Everything was so inviting. It really felt like you could stay here.

The dragon almost scooped you up with their wing as the two of you entered the cave. It wasn't hard to see that they was really excited that you decided to stay here with them. You were pushed in further, shown around the nest and being told a little about every little object.

Era’Tilos suddenly froze in all of their rambling and looked back down on you still covered by its wing.

“I completely forgot to ask you what your name is! If your going to stay here with me it might be good to know.”

Era’Tilos stared down at you, still surrounded by their large black wing. You nodded slowly as you stared into the hypnotic green eyes of the beast.

“Wess… My name is Wess.”

You responded in a low tone, more of a mumble instead of actual words, still a little reluctant to say too much. The beast still managed to pick up your name and gave you a nod in confirmation before turning back and showing you towards the caves sleeping quarters.

The room looked so much more comfortable than any of the other rooms in the cave. The walls had been smoothed out, and there was multiple pieces of black cloth with patterns of silver sewn into them. They struck you as quite charming with the circular pattern weaved into the center.

As you were released from the tight embrace of the beasts left wing, you moved closer to inspect the fabric. It was soft but still quite firm and it all had a warming feeling to it as if it had been left in the sun for a little too long.

Further back into the room were a large stone slab with some kind of black fabric covering the top of it. You guessed that it was where Era’Tilos slept for their enormous size of the slab.

“It might not be much right now, but that doesn’t mean we won't be able to improve it. If theres something that you think you’ll need, tell me, okay Just tell me if there's something that we’ll need, okay?”

You didn’t really listen to what he said but continued to stare at the intimidating large size of the bed. The fabric on the slab had the same kind of warm feeling to it as the other pieces of cloth hanging around the walls. Even though the bed was made out of mainly stone, it did look extremely comfortable.

As you finally managed to advert your attention away from the bed you turned back to Era’Tilos still right behind you. They watched you excitedly as looked around the room once more. You locked your eyes with theirs but quickly looked before you managed to get lost in the emerald green orbs.

“I couldn’t help to notice the warmth of all the fabric, is it some kind of special type of cloth or something else..?”

They quickly gazed around the room at all of the pieces of cloth hanging around the walls and then looked back at you.

“All of these fabrics have a special enchantment that give them a warm aura. It's great for caves and cold places, to keep the area warm and cozy.”

“So basically magic?”

Era’Tilos let out a hearty laugh at your quick response, but nonetheless continued on their explanation.

“Yes, you could say that it’s ‘basically magic’ but it’s so much more than just that. I’ll spare you the details of all the science behind it, if you so wish to know I can tell you all about it at another time. Though as of right now, I would recommend you getting a little bit more sleep than what you did before, it’s still night  after all.”

They smiled back down at you genuinely as they lightly pushed you towards the bed with their wing. You complied and as you climbed up into the bed Era’Tilos threw one of the warm pieces of cloth over you as a blanket.

The warmth around you was highly relaxing and you could feel yourself dozing of almost instantly from the oh so comforting warmth. You could see in the corner of your eye Era’Tilos leaving the room and walking out towards the exit. They said something before they left the room, yet you could not make out what it was that they said, instead you replied with a low hum as you continued to slip deeper and deeper into unconsciousness.


	2. Empty Book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY SO I FINALLY GOT THIS DONE AFTER THREE WEEKS! Im extremely excited to update this again even though it almost took me a whole month, as i mentioned in the first chapter Im not that fast of a writer. BUT THAT AINT GONNA STOP ME! It might not sound like something but im really happy that someone liked my work so thank you, whoever you are, it means a lot to me ^w^  
> There's not much more to say sooooo... Enjoyyyy! :3

You wake up to the serene yellow glow of the sun's rays shining in through the entrance of the cave. The comforting warmth of the fabric on top of you making it almost impossible to fight back against the need of laying here all day. You swiftly remove the blanket off of you and sit up with your legs off to the side of the slab. 

The sound of your feet on the smooth stone floor lonesomely echoed through the rooms as you enter the large lobby like room. A few books with strange symbols on the cover caught your attention as you look through the room. You approached the shelf and picked up a book with a red cover and with a odd figure resembling a liquid canister of some kind drawn in white ink. The pages inside of the book contained a few pictures scattered around which gave the impression of it being some sort of book about alchemy of some sort.

You continued to quickly look through the different books on the shelves most of them about magic of some kind, all of them used the same unknown symbols which made it significantly harder to make out what they were about, or even read for that matter. In the corner of your eye you spotted a book that unlike all the others. The cover of the book was a dark lavender purple and the instead of being covered with symbols of all kinds of varying shapes and a figure of some sort, it only had three slick black lines parallel to each other swept diagonally over the cover.

There was nothing inside of the book except blank pages, yet it still felt like there was something there, it felt like there was some sort of powerful aura emitting from the book. You continued to turn the pages each time expecting something to appear in the ocean of white pages, yet nothing did. 

When you finished looking through all the blank pages you closed the book and looked on the cover of it once more. The aura had grown even stronger than before and you could feel it pulsing in the air around you as you continued to inspect it. You let your fingers trace over the cover of the book, but as soon as your fingers crossed the black line a sudden shock coursed through your hand and you recoiled and dropped the book.

You held your hand intill your chest as you stared down at the book laying on the floor in front of you. The aura in the air around you disappeared as extended your hand in front of you as you clenched your hand into a fist a few times experimentally. Your hand felt numb and slightly unresponsive, but that was about it.

You quickly retrieved the book from the floor and put it back on the shelf where you first found it before walking towards the exit. Outside of the cave was a flatted out area on edge of a liff. Underneath the cliffs edge laid a vast pinetree forest stretching out towards the horizon. High above the forest the sun shone bright on the treetops down below causing the trees to cast long shadows across the ground. 

With a few unconfident steps you approached the edge of the cliff and sat down an arms length away. Your eyes wandered over the treetops below as you let your body relax to the calming feeling of the wind rushing past your face. The pleasant rays of the sun warmed your body as it continued its climb to the top of the sky.

As the sun reached the apex of the sky distant flaps of large wings could be heard closing in. You stood up and gazed up towards the sky and watched as Era’Tilos flew towards where you were standing. As Era’Tilos approached the heavy wind created by their large wings made it hard for you move towards them but you still managed to approach them with the help of your arm blocking some of the wind.

“I hope you haven’t been all alone for too long, I didn’t expect I would be gone for as long as I was.” They smiled down at you gently as they stretched out their wings a few times. You shook your head to as you followed them closely back into the nest.

You were naturally quite curious about what was written in the books you looked through before and debated whether or not you would ask Era’Tilos to go through them with you. And then there was that purple one. It felt like you probably should tell Era’Tilos about what happend but there was also something that told you that you shouldn’t. You decided to ask them to read the books with you, but you chose not to say anything about the latter.

“Era’Tilos, I was wondering if it would be okay if we could at some point read through one of these books, if you want to that is…”  Your voice turned into a low mumble by the end of the sentence and your hands unconsciously traveled up to the center of your chest to form an anxious dance between your fingers. 

“Well of course, I wouldn’t mind at all! There are after all quite a lot of interesting books laying around here.” They smiled back at you which made you feel all warm giddy inside but you quickly dismissed it in attempts not to make too much of it. Era’Tilos walked up to one of the many shelves and looked through the books that were placed there. You followed suit and helped pick out one of them.

“Oh! This is a good one!” It didn’t take long before Era’Tilos grabbed a light blue book, careful not to accidentally cut into it with their sharp claws, and brought it over towards an empty part of the room. Era’Tilos laid down on a sun lit part of the stone floor, their wings taking the position of where the sun previously shone. 

They raised their wing that was thrown over themself and beckoned you over to sit down in front of them. You compiled and sat down right infront of their chest and they covered you with one of their wing. You were slightly reluctant if it would be okay to lean on their warm scales since you already were so close to them. Era’Tilos opened the book and placed it in front of you so that it leaned on their wing but still that it’s content was easily visible to you and Era’Tilos.

The book Era’Tilos picked out was about the origins of magic and ancient magic, and it was surprisingly easy to understand all the science behind it. The two of you sat like that and read the book for quite some time, with Era’Tilos pointing out certain things and you commenting on what you found interesting, or just to throw in a silly joke here and there. 

Not only did you learn a lot about magic, but you also managed to pick up some words here and there in the written language as well as a few symbols. It might not be much as of now, but it will definitely help in the future.

As time went by you relaxed more and more and started unconsciously to move up closer to Era’Tilos. It ended up that you rested your head on one of their forelegs as well as them pulling you closer to themself with their wing while continuing to read the book aloud. All of this made you feel quite ecstatic to say the least, it was just _oh_ _so comfortable._

A specific part of the book that talked about the learning process of magic caught your attention as the two of you continued to look through the book. It mentioned a lot of things but what intrigued you the most the part that talked about the circumstances of learning magic. It explained a lot about why certain types of people had it easier to learn a specific type of magic and what could be signs of having magical capabilities. It also stated that it was possible to learn almost all types of magic, but cases of that ever happening are extremely well rare. There has also been times someone has acquired some element that was completely unique to themself.

It got you thinking, what types of magic did Era’Tilos know? What if they had something unique to them? They did mention before something about it, but they didn’t go into detail. It would definitely be interesting to see something like that in action. They could maybe even teach you a thing or two!

“Era’Tilos?” Your tone was low and calm, something similar to how someone would speak after they recently woke up. They hummed a simple tune to signal that they were listening as well as moving their gaze down to meet yours. 

“What kind of magic can you use?” You stared back into the green irises hovering over you while turning your body to be able to look back at them without needing to look up behind you and strain your neck.

“As a magical being I’m bound to have a lot of magical capabilities, but I mainly use wind and water. I do know more than just that but it’s not often I actually use anything else.” 

“Could you teach me?” You responded as soon as Era’Tilos finished speaking and excitedly crawled up close to their face until you were almost touching their muzzle. Their head lightly recoiled at your sudden movement and their face turned into one of surprise and shock.

There was a moment of silence between the two of you where neither of you moved so much as an inch and you wondered if you might have been too hasty to request that of them. As you contemplated that Era’Tilos’ face lit up with that familiar smile of theirs that made you feel all warm inside.

“I would love to!” The smile on Era’Tilos’ face only grew larger as they blurted out those words. The sense of worry that was steadily building up inside quickly faded into relief and you relaxed yourself.

“There is a perfect field for just that nearby that we can head over to if you want to, though I would recommend we eat something before that.”  As Era’Tilos said that the two of you started to move away from each other’s embrace. Era’Tilos continued to talk about the learning process of magic and what you should start with while they quickly brought a large woven basket filled with plants and fruits over from one of the nearby shelves.

They placed the basket next to where you were standing and gave you a fruit resembling an apple, the only obvious thing that gave away that it wasn’t an apple was that… well, it was blue. You held the fruit in your hand for a moment before taking a small bite out of it. The taste of the fruit quickly invaded your mouth with an intense sweetness which one you were not prepared for. The taste that was ejected from the fruit reminded you of strawberries, though having much more of a concentrated sweetness. 

You continued to taste the many types of fruit and plants while you listened to Era’Tilos’ continuous rambling about who knows what. A majority of the plants and fruit that laid in the basket were completely foreign to you and looked like something that could have been from a completely different planet, many of which had tastes you’ve never had the pleasure of tasting before.

“If you want to bring anything with you I would recommend you grabbing it now, we should be leaving fairly soon.” You nodded in reply while munching on what could be best described as a much less sour and more salty rhubarb. There wasn’t anything you really needed to bring with you since you didn’t really own anything.

As the two of you exited the cave you shot a quick glance back at the empty, purple book. It laid there, as if it was like any other book, but there was  _ something _ different with it.

You shook your head and hurried out to the cliffside where Era’Tilos was currently waiting for you. As you approached they lowered their body and laid there wing down on the ground to act as a ramp for you. You complied and carefully climbed up on their back before looking back one more time. As you got into place Era’Tilos quickly launched themself into the air and away from cliff with you holding yourself as close as possible to their back not to fall off. The two of you quickly moved further and further away from the mountain and out into unknown territory.

This was when everything truly began.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter comes to an end! I got some big plans for whats going to happen in the next few chapters so actually intresting things might finally happen! (I know, what a surprise!) It would really mean a lot to me if you leave a comment or something like that to share your opinion or to point out some kind of mistake i made. Without anything more to say, i'll see you in the next chapter!  
> -Atheta~


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Im here once again! This chapter is an extremely short one but certanly not any less important one for that. I felt it was necessary to leave this one for themself instead of mashing it up with another chapter. Without further ado, Enjoyyy!

A body laid motionless on the floor bleeding heavily from the throat. Large pools of blood surrounded the body reflecting the low light in its crimson depths. Another human stood over the body holding a thorny blade seemingly made out of solid shadow. The top of it was covered in blood and every drop of it that fell from the blade echoed through the empty halls. 

As the figure relaxed themself they let the blade drop towards the ground but before it made contact with it, it stopped and proceeded to circle around them before growing significantly in size. After growing almost four times larger than the person it stopped and started to take shape behind them. A giant paw with sleek black claws materialized on the person's shoulder along with the rest of a monstrous creature.

“D- Did I do good..?” The person looked up from the body, still covering the floor with its crimson insides, and up towards the shadowy monster that was currently taking form behind them. A large grin appeared on the beast still hidden face and it crouched down to be on a more even level to the human. They didn’t succeed in making themself much smaller but got lower nonetheless. Their currently free claw moved to the humans face and gently caressed their lower right chin of the human.

**_“Of course… you did just perfect… but there's still much we need to do my dear…”_ ** The monster spoke in a low whisper, their voice extremely gentle for a six meter tall shadow monster. The human pulled in their hands close to their chest before taking a big step over the body and proceeding towards the exit of the hall. The beast behind him turned back into the shadowy form and quickly invaded his body. The feeling was not an unexpected one, as he continued to walk out into the silver lit night. The trees casted long shadows all across the ground and the white light of the moon shone onto whatever was not already covered by the dark. 

“You w- wont leave me, Odium… will you…?” He stopped at the entrance and looked down at the white marble staircase inviting them down from the large building. A warm feeling spread all around his body as he muttered those words.  **_“If you so wish to stay with me when  everything is done… you are more than welcome to do so, but only if you really want to…”_ ** The voice spoke directly to him through his own mind but empathized it even further by covering his surroundings in the shadowy matter. He relaxed himself and followed the stairs down into towards the edge of the forest. He muttered a quite thank you before disappearing into the dark forest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As said, this is an extremely short one but i felt it was important to leave these two characters in a chapter of their own instead of trying to mash it together with another chapter not to make it too confusing. I will be keeping these two characters for themself mostly and i'll go back to them every other chapter or so. I do hope that all of you are actually enjoying this story so im not writing this for nothing and it'll mean alot to me if you'd leave a comment or something simmilar to show me that you like it!  
> -Atheta~


	4. The Battleground

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY SO I FINALLY GOT THIS CHAPTER DONE! It took me longer than what I would have wanted to write this but its done nonetheless! We've also reached more than 60 hits which i didn't think would happen so soon so yay! I don't have anything more to say so enjoy!! :333

“Wess! Down there, where here now!” Era’Tilos’ shouted over the harsh winds of the ocean. You could feel Era’Tilos slowing down from the previously fast speed that the two of you were flying at. In the distance an island covered with trees began to form. There was a relatively large space near the closest edge of the island where a circle like clearing was visible with what looked like some sort of artificially created dirt field The many scorch marks on the field hinted that a battle recently took place there and the more than plenty of burned trees in the close proximity further strengthened that idea.

As the two of you drew closer to the island Era’Tilos began to descend towards the before mentioned dirt field. They smoothly landed on a stone platform next to a large obsidian obelisk which stretched three or four meters into the air. You climbed down from Era’Tilos’ back careful not to hurt yourself, or Era’Tilos for that matter, and as you got onto solid ground moved forward to get a better view of the field in front of you.

Large pieces of the earth seemed to have been ripped straight out from the ground and thrown large distances as well as having traces of multiple explosions. There were also parts of the field which had been completely overrun with thick vines that covered the ground and everything nearby.

“What happened to this place..?” Your voice was nothing more than a low whisper as you slowly walked onto the scorched earth next to the platform. The ash in the air irritated your nose and made you let out a small sneeze.

“This,” Era’Tilos paused and walked up next to you before motioning forward to the mess in front of you that once might have been a field. “is the battleground. A sandbox for all magic casters.” They walked further out into the open, passing some of the unnaturally large mounds of dirt and rock and you followed them through the field. The two of you passed through a gate by the edge of the battleground and followed along a gravel path into the forest. 

After a few minutes of walking in complete silence the two of you arrived at a fenced in area with a few armored dummies. Some of the dummies had taken a major beating but still seemed to stand strong. 

“Magic castings is always going to be easier when you have a clear target to focus on, that’s where these dummies come in play.”  They stated before continuing on their explanation. “Using your arm or hand to indicate where you want the spell to take effect is also quite crucial for new casters. That way most of the thinking is already done for you and all that’s left is, casting the spell.”

You followed Era’Tilos’ instructions and raised your arm while focusing on one of the dummies that stood in front of you. The pose you had felt ridiculous, as if you were trying to imitate something out of a dream you recently had. This can’t actually be the way to cast magic, right?

Era’Tilos inspected your stance before once again explaining even more about the process of using magic. “You should be able to sense a lot of energy surrounding you, try to home in on it and contain it before releasing all of it towards your target.” 

All of the energy you were attempting to build up surrounded you in a powerful aura and before you knew it all became too much and you lost control as all of it overwhelmed you. A ray of magical energy blasted away from your hand and collided against the ground in front of the dummies which caused a bright light to emit from where it landed. The light disappeared and in its place was a small black orb. 

“That’s...unusual…” Era’Tilos slowly stated as they cautiously made their way towards the tiny black orb that was floating a dozen meters away from the two of you. 

“What is… it..?” You asked as you slowly walked up beside them and took a closer look at the orb. It had such an intense black colour it almost felt as if it wasn’t really there, it looked so unnatural. 

“I have no idea.” Era’Tilos simply answered as they quickly threw you a look before continuing to inspect the unknown object. They extended one of their forelegs to touch the orb but as soon as they were about to touch it a bolt of electricity shot out from it and shocked their claw. Era’Tilos let out a yelp of surprise and quickly withdrew their claws away from the object. They backed even further away from the orb just to be safe before looking up from their paw and back towards it. 

Even though you just saw Era’Tilos get shocked by the orb you still felt drawn to it, there was something with it that just felt so, fascinating? You made sure Era’Tilos wasn’t watching you and quickly snatched the orb from where it was currently floating. You pulled the orb towards yourself before you opened your hand and looked down in your palm where the orb now was. It was warm and had the texture of a stone that had been smoothened by an endless barrage of flowing water. The orb just laid there in your palm, not doing anything to your surprise, you expected it to do anything but what you’re not really sure about.

You quickly put away the orb in one of your pockets and rushed over to Era’Tilos. Other than being relatively shocked nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. They smiled back at you in an attempt to disarm any worry that you had but even though you felt relieved there was still that nagging worry in the back of your head.

“What actually happened back there..?” You quietly asked while still looking up at them with a face full of concern. Era’Tilos didn’t say anything at first but stayed in their thoughts for a moment before turning towards you.

“Do you know if you have any kind of special trait of some sort?” You shook your head to their question and they turned away and grumbled something to themself before once again turning to you.

“I think you may have a completely unique ability.” You looked up at them with a face lined with confusion. They stared back down at you with something of a mix of excitement and curiosity.

“Oh, this is just wonderful!” Era’Tilos shout out as they almost bounced in excitement at the sudden realized to what this actually meant. They frantically started rambling about who knows what at this point but seeing them like this made you feel all warm inside. It was like a pleasant fire of happiness that was slowly growing with each passing moment. 

You smiled happily up at them, still slightly confused about what was actually going on, or what anything of it actually meant, but happy nonetheless. Once they managed to calm down they gave you their usual toothy grin. Though all of this positive energy didn’t last long as a voice appeared from behind the two of you.

“Hey! What the hell do the two of you think you’re doing?” A woman resembling an anthropomorphic wolf with grayish fur stood behind the two of you aiming directly at you with a silver bow. She wore a large leather coat that had straps and pockets holding all sorts of things varying from small glass vials and bottles filled with colourful liquids to notebooks and other unknown gizmos. There were also multiple blades visible, some smaller knifes on a strap going along her chest and bigger swords by her hips. Her muscular build also made her quite intimidating, more so than she already was, seeing as she was pointing a bow directly at the two of you. 

She averted her gaze away from you and instead focused on Era’Tilos who was standing almost right behind you with a threatening stance. As she identified the further a small grin spread across her face as she moved slightly closer and lowered her bow just a tiny bit before speaking up again without looking away from them.

“Oh, I never would have guessed to see you here again, Midnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for leaving y'all on a cliff hanger but really didn't want to delay this chapter any longer. I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible but when that actually is, I do not know. Anyways, See ya in the next chapter!! ^w^


	5. A house in the forest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOOOO! This went insanely fast for me and I have no idea how or why, but i sure don't mind! Things will probably be much more intresting from now on (hopefully) since everything is finally beginning to pick up! Im quite happy with how this turned out and I hope you guys will think the same ^^
> 
> Just to clarify, 'ä' is pronounced like the 'ai' in pair or the 'ai' in hair.
> 
> Aaaaand without further ado! Enjoy!!

“A few years back, when the war was still going on there were a powerful beast that traveled this world. It’s black scales made it invisible in the night sky as it flew from place to place destroying everything that dared defy it. The only real sign that this monstrosity was real was the endless destruction it left behind. It would come to be known as **‘Midnight’**. When the war finally ended the beast disappeared too only to be remembered as a folklore, except for the ones that had seen the destruction this creature was capable of. They knew very well that this creature was as real as they were. Though, there were four beings that were unlike the rest, instead of being survivors of the beasts attacks, they were its allies. A representative to the Pokhan lizardfolk clan, an adventurous wolfann and and a human. They decided it was best for everyone if they took the secret of them working with **‘Midnight’** to the grave, so they all went their separate ways and started new lives, far away from each other, waiting for the day they would have too…”

“Are you really telling him that old story, Säijla?” Era’Tilos walked in through the large wooden opening and into the room you and Säjla was currently sitting in. She leaned over over the chairs backrest and looked at Era’Tilos with a now upside-down point of view before turning her entire body hundred and eighty degrees letting the entire weight of her body rest against the chair almost tipping point it in the process.

“Oh, come on Era, stop being such a buzzkill! I know you like it.” Säjla whined back at Era’Tilos almost as if she was offended by the idea of not telling you the whole story. All Era’Tilos responded with at first was a heavy sigh as they laid down the sunny corner of the room behind Säjla. They kept their eyes closed for a moment before opening them to stare back at her.

“I wouldn’t mind it if half of it was actually true.” Era’Tilos simply stated as they continued to eye her. You took a sip of the tea mug in front of you in the table while listening to the two of them bickering. Säijla turned back to you after seemingly having lost the argument. She put both of her elbows on the table and leaned in to rest her head in her palms. The grumpy expression she had disappeared and in its place came her regular mischievous smile. 

“So Wess, how did you actually meet Era?” She watched you intently as you started to explain about how all of it started. You went through about the process of waking up with them, and staying in the nest with them before she stopped you.

“You keep saying ‘they’ when talking about Era, why's that?” She paused for a second but before you could actually say anything they seemed to figure it out on their own and started speaking again. “Wait… you mean that you..?” She turned around and leaned over the chair towards Era’Tilos who was almost fast asleep in the corner, the only indication of them still being conscious was the small movements of their ears when someone mentioned them. 

“Yo! Era! Wess doesn’t know you have a dick!” Säijla suddenly shouted out which made Era’Tilos almost jump from where they were lying. You almost spat out the tea that you were currently drinking but managed to stop yourself and settle for just casually choking on it. 

“What the hell Säijla?” Era’Tilos responded loudly  to her sudden outburst almost making her fall out of her chair with laughter. She slammed her hand on the table while laughing and Era’Tilos continued to shoot knives at her with their gaze. You coughed a few times before recovering from the surprise and you could feel yourself lightly blushing. Once Säijla calmed down they continued down the path off… whatever actually was going on.

“You really didn’t know? I can promise you if you would’ve asked nicely he’d probably even show you himself!” Era’Tilos stood up at that comment and almost threw her across the room along with the chair. She slammed against the wall laughing even harder now that Era’Tilos had made an active attempt to stop her from talking. 

“I can see you haven’t changed one bit since we last saw each other Säijla, even though I would have  _ wished  _ to say otherwise.” The last part of the sentence dripped with poison and it was visible that Era’Tilos’ smile was highly forced. The small red blush was growing larger on your cheeks by the minute and you could feel the warmth of it spreading all across your body like an uncomfortable itch.

“Has it always been like this between you two?” You chimed in in an attempt to change the subject from the more than awkward one that Säijla had created. EraTilos let out an heavy sigh again and turned back to you while trying to ignore the laughing mess on the floor that was Säijla. 

“On the most part, yes, Säijla was always that type of person to joke around such, and while it could be annoying from time to time,” Era’Tilos turned towards Säijla, who was still on the floor laughing although not as much as before, and raised their voice to emphasis more than what was actually necessary “like now for example,” They, or… he, let out another sigh and a small chuckle, most likely looking back at old memories with the rest of the group, before continuing. “Though, I can’t say it didn’t help with the morale, its funny how much the smallest things under the right circumstances can actually affect you.” Säijla came back to the table with the chair taking a seat to your right, now with a highly mature behavior instead of the previous joky one that seemed to be her regular state of being.

The sun outside was starting to near the horizon and the warm orange light of the day was turning into a calm blue glow as the moon began from its slumber. The tall pines casted their long shadows across the grass outside of the house creating a pattern of shadow and grass stripes. 

There was a moment of silence as the three of you just sat there around the table. You yawned loudly ultimately ending the silence that had taken over the room. Era’Tilos smiled at your sign of tiredness and Säijla let out a low chuckle. 

“Speaking of which, Era, you want me to prepare your old room? It looks like your going to be stuck here for the night.” Säijla asked as she stood up from the table and took your empty cup. Era’Tilos responded with a quick nod and  stood up as well following Säijla up the large stairs leading up to the second floor. You could hear them speaking to each other upstairs but the distance plus the more than thick floor and walls blocked out most of the sound.

You sat there at the table, now all alone, staring out at the distant sunset. Who were you really before all this, where did you come, from and just exactly, why? It hadn’t really bothered you until now, with Säijla telling that story and Era’Tilos mentioning their old group. There was also that when you first met Era’Tilos, they, no...  _ he, _ said something about when he took you in, something about here being more reasons about why he did that, but didn’t expand on it. And there was also that experience with the book, and now the orb. 

You reached down your pocket and picked up the small black orb and held it in your palm, lightly touching it with your other free hand. When that didn’t give off any kind of reaction from the orb you lightly threw it up into the air, but instead of it falling back into your hand as you expected it to it froze mid air and just stayed there. 

You slowly stood up from where you were sitting to get a better view at the orb that was now floating right in front of your face. Before you could do anything more you heard Era’Tilos come down the stairs and you quickly snacthed the orb out of the air and put it back in your pocket. 

“We’ve prepared a room for you, the second door on the right, it should have your name on it. I'm going out to stretch my wings, I’ll be back in twenty minutes or so.”  Before you managed to respond you saw them…  _ him _ , take off right outside the entrance. With a light push on the chair it slid in under the table with it’s backrest lightly touching the edge of it. On the other side of the room a doorway led into a small library with books stacked up neatly against the shelves. 

There wasn’t anything in specific you were actually looking for, you just thought it would be a good idea to get a gist of what kind of books were here. There was a few books that grabbed your attention and you made a mental note to look through them at another occasion. Beside the door you came in from was another door leading into an hallway with three rooms on the left of it, there wasn’t anything special in these rooms except maybe one or two weapons but other than that it looked like a few regular storage room. 

You walked back to toward the kitchen area, grabbing a book about geography along the way, and walked up the stairs. Just as Era’Tilos said, the second door on the right did have your name engraved on it. The first thing you saw inside the room was a twin sized bed with dark purple cover over it, and beside it was an old wood desk along with a night candle and a few quills along with a small bottle of ink. There was a wardrobe on the right of the desk and a small shelf where random items and books were placed.

Your hand lightly brushed against the cover of the bed as you walked into the room, careful not to miss anything. You sat down on the bed with a loud thud before letting the rest of your body follow. 

You laid there, head still spinning on about everything that had happened up until now. There were so many things that seemed off, it all couldn’t just be a coincidence, right? It really did feel like there was a connection between everything that had happened, there had to be a connection. A knock on the door pulled your out of thoughts and back into reality. Right after the knock Säijla opened the door and walked into the room, casually leaning against the wall. 

“Like the room? It’s not much, but if you want something ya gotta work for it.” She said with her usual grin on her face. You didn’t say anything but only sat up to get a better view at what she was currently doing. She dropped her look to the ground and a serious expression suddenly replaced her usual grin as she continued to speak. “It’s actually weird to see Era like this, the last time he was this happy was when Pryel was still alive…” She paused again for a moment looking up from the floor and straight at you, inspecting your entire body before once more continuing to speak. “When you think about it, you kinda remind me of ‘em, the whole quiet, passive,  _ calm,  _ type _.  _ You even look like him!” There was another moment of silence as Säijla moved closer to you to further inspect you before letting out a sigh and sitting down on the desk beside the bed.

“Right, you don’t know who Pryel is… He was the fifth member of our party, the human. A damn good sword wielder, it was made out of concentrated magic so he always brought it out already mid slash, one hell of a tough fucker…But, he died during the war, had his entire chest ripped out, everything went to hell after that…” She wiped her eyes with a swift movement of her hand before looking up at you reassuring smile. With a push to the desk she stood up, shaking off the moody atmosphere that had slowly been building up in the room. “No point dwelling in the past when everything is already said and done, gotta instead look forward.” She shoot you her usual grin and gave you a thumbs up as she made her way over to the door apparently done with whatever errand this would have been classed as.

“Welp, I won’t be taking anymore of your time. If you need anything I’ll be downstairs.” The door shut and everything fell quiet again. You would most likely not get that much sleep seeing as how much was on your mind, even before this highly one sided conversation with Säijla. It seemed like every day only introduced more questions that most likely wouldn’t be answered, and with how everything was going, it would probably remain that way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another chapter comes to an end :3  
> I'll try to release the next one as soon is I can but as usual, no idea when that is but I'll try to get it out within three weeks since I want to start releasing these at a set time.  
> I dont really have anything else to say so gooobaaiii!! :33


	6. A promise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT THIS STORY HAS REACHED 100 HITS! It might not sound like much, but I would've never thought it would reach this many so quickly! Im trufy thankful for each and everyone of you who have actually decided to read this thing and I hope that y'all will stick around. ^v^
> 
> Without further ado, ENJOY!!

_The darkness keeps growing within me, like a sickness spreading through my body, taking it over bit by bit. With each passing moment he pulls me closer to himself, invading my mind with his voice, consoling me, encouraging me, reminding me that he won’t leave me. That I won’t leave him. Even though he makes me do things I don’t always want to do, I feel safe here, like I belong here, with him. I will follow his every word till the end of time itself just to stay with him. I don’t want anything else. I'm just so scared of what I’m turning into, what he is shaping me into, will that still be me, or will it be someone else? He keeps on promising me that I won’t lose sight of who I am, and I want to believe him, but I just can’t. I’m… I’m sorry Odium... but I’m just so scared… I’m sorry…_

_… I’m sorry…_

A few small tears escaped his eyes and fell onto the bed sheet, leaving behind small wet stains as he laid there, alone in the dark room. The heavy clanking of the guards patrolling outside of the room could be heard as they walked back and forth with their heavy steel plated armor. There wasn’t usually that many of them in this part of the castle, but since Odium decided to up the security no place in the castle was ever completely quiet anymore. And it didn’t help that wherever he went that paladin always followed him around if Odium wasn’t with him, which was now.

He sat up and tried to compose himself before he had a complete breakdown, which would most likely result in another long night next to Odium. _He_ was just like that, protective, and while he did like staying with him, it always felt like it was wrong. With a quick shake of his head he shoved these thoughts into the back of his mind and stood up from the bed, slowly making his way to the door leading out to the hallway.

The paladin would most likely be on the other side of the door, standing on the left just guarding it, like they usually did whenever he went somewhere where he either wanted privacy or something along those lines. As he walked up to the door he hovered his hand above the handle, hesitant to open the door. Where would he even go? He let out a heavy sigh before opening the door.

Just as expected, the paladin stood right outside the door, their large sword steadily held in front of them, the tip of the blade against the ground, almost like a statue. The instant he walked out of the room and into the hallway the paladin responded by putting away the sword in its scabbard by their hip and following him closely as he wandered through the never ending corridors.

After a dozen minutes of aimlessly walking through the castle he found himself outside the two large double doors leading into the throne room, where Odium spent all his time, doing… whatever he does. He stood there, staring at the large gate in front of him before turning away from it and walking towards the stairs. He didn’t want to confront _him_ , not now, not like this. He continued further down the palace, each floor getting darker and darker as he went, until he reached the bottom floor, the dungeon.

Odium had always told you not to come down here, but he never really told you why. The fire from the torches on the wall weakly lit up the hallway in front of him sending a cold shiver down his spine. He quickly shook it off before continuing down the dark hallway, leading away into the unknown. It didn’t take long before he reached meekly lit cells. Not to anyone's surprise it seemed like this part of the castle had never been used, all the cells were empty, not a sign of anyone ever being kept there.

**_“You shouldn’t be down here.”_ ** He stopped cold as those words echoed through the empty chambers. _He_ was here. Odium was here. The paladin quickly kneeled down beside him as he stood there, frozen in place at the idea of what Odium might do.

Before he could finish that thought the shadowy shape appeared in front of him, forming into the beast like shape of Odium’s physical form, his toxic green steel like scales for once not covered in the shadows that always seemed to resonate from him. He towered above him and he had to take a step back to actually be able to look up at him properly. His massive shape was an intimidating sight to say the least and the current situation didn’t make any of it better.

He could feel his heartbeat quicken and breathing start to falter as Odium lightly lifted up his head with the help of a light touch under the chin with his claw. Odium held him like that for a moment before as he dismissed the paladin, who bowed once before heading back from where they came from.

**_“You know I don’t like it when you’re scared. You have nothing to be afraid of here.”_ ** Odium slowly moved around him, brushing his claws along him, as he calmly whispered to him in a comforting tone. He stopped behind him and lightly grabbed his cheeks and turned his head towards themself as they leaned in over his shoulder. He held his breath as Odium inspected his face, still holding his head in a set position to get a better view of him. The signs of tears were most likely still visible on his face and if so Odium had probably already noticed them.

He continued to caress his face for a moment before he completely surrounded him with the shadows that had started to form around them. As the shadows started to cover them, Odium pulled him close to himself and held him there firmly against his scales, as if protecting him from some unknown danger. For a blink of an eye the stone floor underneath them disappeared before being replaced with the wooden floor of the upper levels of the castle.

**_“You’ve been crying again. Why.”_ ** Odium asked firmly, almost demanding an answer once the shadows had started to clear around them. They were no longer down in the basement but had instead been transported to the private chambers, Odiums private chamber. As he waited for the answer he pushed him backwards, to the bed that was standing right behind him, and let him fall onto it. Once he collided with the bed he crawled further up towards the middle of it before curling up into a ball, in a weak attempt to try and feel somewhat safe. There was a long moment of silence where nothing happened before he finally decided to answer the question that Odium had thrown out before him.

“I’ve been having doubts lately, about… all this… us...” He quietly mumbled while pressing his face into his legs to advert is gaze away from Odium who was staring down at his small shape. He let out a shaky breath before continuing, seemingly nearing another breakdown of his. “Everything just feels so… wrong..? I don’t know if I want to do this anymore…”  He meekly looked up at him as he ended the sentence but quickly looked away once more when he reached his eyes. Odium laid down above him as he watched him look away from him, shielding him from the rest of the room with his large body.

**_“You don’t have to doubt yourself, everything will be alright in the end… Know that I will always be here for you… Pryel...”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And another chapter comes to and end! As I said before, im truly thankful for each and every one of you, and I hope that y'all are enjoying this story ^^  
> We'll see what the future brings, but until then, GOOBAIII!!


	7. Aren't the colours just beautiful?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've decided that I will try to get a chapter out every second thursday if not sooner, but that will most likely be when I'll be posting the updates, so atleast I have some kind of structure now! There's really nothing more to say other than the usual so, enjoy this extra long chapter!

A month passed and things stayed rather normal, you and Era’Tilos had your usual practice sessions at the battleground, and you were actually starting to make good progress in your magic casting to the point where you could do rather simple things without much of an issue. Since you and Era’Tilos had been reading a lot of books whenever the two of you were alone at Era’Tilos’ cave you had started to pick up a few things in the written language, Säijla had also started to teach you in how use regular weapons whenever the two of you decided to stay for longer durations, though she was only actually good at teaching you in how to use a bow, the rest of it was… questionable at best.  This was how things turned out to be each week, quite normal to be honest.

Though today, something different would finally happen. Säijla and Era’Tilos had been planning to heading in to a nearby city, or more that Säijla would get a ride from Era’Tilos while he try to hide himself nearby instead of a dragon and a woflann running around in a city terrifying everyone that just so happened to be there. While they had that conversation you just so happened to be pulled into the mix and now it would seem like you would join Säijla in the city. It just so happened that today was the day you would be heading in.

You didn’t know what to expect from the city other than that there would be a lot of people there from every corner in the world along with all kinds of things to see and do and it made you both nervous and excited for the trip. You woke up early that day to make sure you got everything you needed along with some gold that you Era’Tilos had given the day before incase you found something you’d like to buy.

Once you had everything you needed you grabbed your backpack, a spare one that Säijla had dug up from one of the many storage rooms filled with all kinds of equipment, and put most of it inside of it. It wasn’t much stuff since he barely owned anything, most of the stuff he had had been given to him by Era’Tilos, mainly books, Säijla had also thrown some things your way, most of which were weapons of some kind, but also some general traveling  equipment since that was what most of what her stuff that she had laying around was. 

You swung the backpack over your shoulders and opened the door before rushing down the stairs to where Era’Tilos and Säijla were waiting. As soon as you reached the bottom of the stairs Säijla turned around towards you with a large grin while Era’Tilos glared at her with an annoyed look on his face. 

“Well would you look at that, speak of the devil and they shall appear!” Säijla quickly announced making Era’Tilos avert his gaze from her and onto you while brushing away their previously irritated look and switching it out for a welcoming one. 

“Hope you’re ready, we’ll be leaving any minute now.” Era’Tilos stated as you approached them. You answered with an excited yup as you sat down next to Era’Tilos. Säijla eyed the two of you, her grin growing even larger than before almost to the point of it being unnatural. 

“If you speak even a word of  _ that _ I’ll make sure you won’t have any fur left when I’m done with you.” Era’Tilos threatened as he shot daggers with his eyes at Säijla to which she only responded with a laugh and a gesture of sealing her mouth. It was quite common for them to go on like this, mainly due to Säijla being more than happy to press his buttons. It was kinda normal to be honest, especially when you here nearby for some reason. You’ve come to terms with it, they were just like that, and to be completely honest, it is quite funny to see them go back and forth like that. 

“Welp, since we have everything ready might as well start moving.” Era’Tilos said as he lifted himself from the floor where he was laying before walking out of the house barely able to fit out of the large gateish door. You and Säijla followed after him out of the house, Säijla locking it behind you before both of you climbed on top of Era’Tilos, Säijla making a few jokes about ‘mounting’ him, before Era’Tilos took of in the middle of her sentence to make her shut up. 

It didn’t take long before the three of you arrived and landed a kilometer or so away from the city. You and Säijla would walk the rest of the distance so that Era’Tilos wouldn’t have to risk attracting any unwanted attention to himself. You hopped off of him and breathed in the fresh air blowing through the lush grasslands around you. 

“Once you two are back, send me a signal and I’ll come pick you up.” Era’Tilos said once the two of you had climbed down from him to which Säijla responded with a thumbs up to. He wished the two of you luck before taking off once again, leaving the two of you alone. For a moment both of you only stood there watching as Era’Tilos flew further and further away. 

“And then there were two.” Säijla said after a small moment of silence but quickly continued speaking as she turned towards you excitedly. “Well, what  do you say, shall we?” She said as she bounced excitedly towards a path nearby that led towards the city. You smiled and followed after the excited wolfkinn as she started rambling about everything she wanted to do once they got to the city, though halfway through all of it she stopped and took a deep breath and calmed herself down while still keeping her pace.

The city had started to grow closer in the horizon as they continued their walk through the sunlit plains, wind continuously blowing past them cooling them in the warm rays of the sun. A mountain range stretched itself across the plains and past the city, seemingly continuing forever as it disappeared away over the distant horizon. 

Neither of you said anything as the two of you got closer and closer to your destination, Säijla picking up the pace in a somewhat tuned down excitement as you got even closer. There was a large stone wall surrounding the city for defence as well as watchtowers placed all around the edges of it. The large gate serving as the entrance to the city invited them to the large center road where hundreds of booths were placed with all sorts of thing were sold and bought, everything from food, books, clothes, weapons, and gems. 

“Welcome, to Endale” Säijla stated dramatically as they walked through the enormous gate and into the large crowd of people and creatures from all across the lands. You watched the crowd awestruck at all of the different types of people and creatures that just so happened to be there for whatever reason. There was Seafolk, Bird People, things with tentacles growing from their back? All sorts of beings, beautiful and terrifying, big and small. 

With a quick shake of your head you broke out from the mesmerizing environment of the city and quickly caught back up with Säijla who was currently inspecting one of the stands, to no one’s surprise, was filled with blades and other weapons. What she saw in weapons that you didn’t was unknown, but she definitely saw something fascinating with them nonetheless.

This was basically extent of what the two of you did, looking at what the stands had to offer while continuing down the large towards the heart of the city of Endale. You bought a few small things that you found interesting, most of which were random things that you found pretty, while Säijla bought almost every dangerous thing she could get ahold of and more.

As the two of you continued down Säija led you into one of the many alleyways littering the road and further into the desolate parts of the city. You followed her through the winding path between all the houses until you reached a small staircase that led down into a pub of sorts with a wooden sign above the door displaying it’s name, “The Scorched Appendage”.

“What are we doing here exactly?” You asked Säijla as both of you stopped for a moment in front of the entrance to the pub. She only gave you a smile and a thumbs up as she walked up to the door and flung it open. The first thing you saw inside of the pub was the bartender that stood behind the counter facing a customer but as soon as the small bell signaling someone entering it exiting rang she looked away from them and towards the two of you.

The bartender had light gray skin, or scales, that resembled something of a shark’s scales, with darker grey marking forming sharp lines along her scantily clad body. Six long squid like tentacles sprouted out from their back performing mundane tasks such as cleaning glasses before putting them away under the counter. She gave the two of you a smile, mainly aimed at Säijla, before speaking up in a raspy feminine voice.

“Säijla! It’s been awhile, how have things been?” She asked happily as Säijla approached the bar with you following along reluctantly. You felt the eyes of the other occupants follow your every move as you joined Säijla at the counter. The stares that were following you didn’t seem hostile, it was more something along the lines of mixed interest and mild amusement, as if they found your somewhat shy exterior funny.

“You won't believe it Aiie, but  **_Steelfury_ ** ’s back in business, baby!” Säijla said with an excited wave of her arm. Aiie stopped everything she was doing before she almost pulled Säijla over the counter with two of her tentacles and grabbing her with her arms. 

“Really!? And Midnight’s okay with you picking it back up!?” Aiie responded excitedly as she held Säijla locked against the counter almost shaking her back and forth. 

“Okay with it?! He’s the one who who ordered it! We’re actually rebuilding the group!” Säijla practically shouted at her. If everyone in the bar wasn’t already looking at them, they sure were now. 

You weren’t sure what they were so excited about but since they brought in Era’Tilos’ nickname it would make you guess it had something to do with their previous group the had. While they were going back and forth like this you decided to test your abilities in your apparently completely unique element, or whatever it was supposed to be called. Of course, as expected this caused you to kind of space out for the rest of the conversation. 

When you and Era’Tilos first started training you you had no idea what he meant with “focus on the energy around you” but the more you trained the more you understood just what that meant. When you closed your eyes you could see thousands of colours floating around like smoke, some of which are colours barely imaginable to the normal mind, as if they weren’t truly supposed to be visible for you. One of these colours always seemed to call out for you though, some kind of purple always seemed to take up a vast majority around you, calling out for you, beckoning you to release it. 

You focused on it, letting it drown out all other colours, letting it grow ever more vibrant until it consumed everything else. You felt the energy travel down towards your hand where you were attempting to focus it to later let it free, before unleashing it to do whatever it wanted to do, usually only emitting light and somewhat removing gravity temporarily. There had been rare occasions where you’ve opened up what you believed to be a pocket dimension but you hadn’t had the chance to actually see if your theory was correct.

As you continued to let the energy grow you felt your surrounding start to fade away almost as if you were slipping away from reality, yet you didn’t let it go of it and kept on focusing. Once you’ve collected as much energy you felt you could you slowly opened your eyes to be greeted with Säijla and Aiie staring at you with a terrified look. You looked around the rest of the room, everyone else also looking at you with the same terrified gaze.  At first you didn’t understand why everyone were looking at you like that, until you looked down at your hands that you held calmly in front of you as if carrying a heavy crate. A Bright pink-purple glow surrounded them casting their light on everything nearby. As you moved your hands from their location, the purple light creating lines in the air by the sudden motion but still staying around your hands. 

“Wess..? what are you doing?” Säijla asked hesitantly forcing you to look up from the glow and back at her. Her face was covered with worry, and surprise as she looked deep into your eyes. Somehow you didn’t feel any kind of worry or hesitation in this current moment, as if everything was as it should be. This was probably the most confident you’ve ever been ever, while not really knowing what you were doing it still felt like you’ve done it thousands of times before. 

“I don’t know.” You responded calmly as you continued to test the waters with calm movements of your hands and arms before locking them back in place where you first stated with them. As that happened the glow grew even brighter before leaving your hands and forming a rectangular shape above them. It solidified and the glow disappeared leaving behind a lavender purple book with three slick black lines. Your book something told you mind told you. 

“How did you..? How the hell did you just do that?!” Säijla stuttered out as the book appeared in your hands, whilst Aiie looked down at the book from behind of the counter with reluctant interest. You held if for a moment, but didn’t hesitate to open it like before. This time, instead of it being completely empty, many of the pages filled with information about almost everything. Unlike all the other books that you’ve ever tried to read, keyword; try, had all been written in the same runic alphabet, but this one was written in something completely different, yet you had no issues understanding it.

“So you’re one of those unique casters…” Aiie simply stated, breaking the silence that had started to form inside the bar, resulting in the nervous atmosphere slowly start to fade at statement. Säijla continued to stare at you with a highly confused face before she turned back Aiie.

“Okayy… back to the issue at hand Aiie… So you think you can set everything up like it was before?” Säijla asked Aiie in an attempt to take her mind off your sudden decision in summoning a book from nowhere. Aiie wrote something down on a note to that and nodded before looking up at her and responding happily.

“Consider it done, though I don’t know if it will be as easily accessible without tipping off the authorities, and we all know how much they like your little group.” She said as she gave Säijla a sarcastic smile. They exchanged a few more words before giving each other a hug, Aiie almost lifting Säijla up in the process, before you two said goodbye and left the bar and walked back out into the city.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I said in the beginning, You'll most likely see another update on thursday the 3rd of may, so stay tuned for that! Other than that, See ya on the next update!!


	8. Discovery of one's mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I kinda missed when I were supposed to release this chapter by a day but hey! It's here now! Other than that I hope you enjoy this... whatever it is, I honsetly don't know anymore. But yeah! Enjoy!!

“So what did we actually do down there?” You asked Säijla once the two of you walked out of the bar and up the stairs to the urban road. She looked down at you before shooting a look back at the bar before grinning down at you.

“Oh that? Era asked me to get some things done, Aiie owns a pretty good location that we used as a headquarters of sorts, so we thought ‘hey, why not use that place again?’” She answered happily and you gave her a happy nod as you followed her back towards the market road. The sound of the bustling road grew louder the closer you got before both of you exited the small road and walked back onto the busy road. 

“Speaking of doing things, since when did you learn to just summon books out of nowhere?” Säijla asked you in return while looking back at you and the book you held tightly against your chest like it was a stuffed animal. You tried to think of some way you could explain it but whatever that popped up pointed back at the same answer.

“Honestly, I have no idea, It just felt so natural to do, so I guess I just went for it?” You answered barely convincing yourself with that, Säijla on the other hand didn’t seem to see any flaw in the explanation and nodded happily. 

You and Säijla stopped at a few more stands before deciding to head back towards the location where Era’Tilos was going to pick you up. It had been quite a nice trip but the constant walking combined with all the people had drained a lot of your energy. As you walked through the giant gate leading out to into the wilderness Säijla turned to you.

“So, how are things working out between you and Era?” The question stroke you as a weird one, like the ‘between’ hinted at there be being something more going on with you and him. Once you actually thought about it, was there something more going on between the two of you..? A small red blush appeared on your face as you thought about you and him like… that. 

“No… Nothings going on between me and him…” You answered meekly while scratching the back of your head nervously as well as dodging Säijla’s gaze. Once you stopped scratching you also looked back up at Säijla who was giving you a smug grin, seeing through your practically transparent shield that you tried to hide your emotions behind. 

“I take that as a yes.” She simply responded making the small blush on your face grow into half a wildfire as you hid your face behind your book as well as letting out an uncomfortable murr that she reacted to with a light laugh before continuing. “Though don’t feel bad about it, I can assure you, it’s mutual.” She added as well as giving you an encouraging pat on your shoulder before picking up the pace to what it was before this conversation.

Did-… did Era’Tilos really like you like that? She had to be kidding right? Though… it would be nice if he did… With how caring he was… and calm…  _ and kind _ … along with many other words that you didn’t have in your mind at the moment. You hadn’t thought about it that much until now, but now, you would most likely never stop thinking about it. You and him together…You really did have it hard for him, didn’t you?

The endless onslaught of thoughts continued their attack in your mind as you and Säijla continued the long trek towards the meetup point. The plains that surrounded Endale started to be replaced with colourful trees the further away the two of you got until the entire road were surrounded by them. Yet even the beauty of your surroundings couldn’t assist you in your attempt in finding something to distract you from your own thoughts that were currently taking over your rational thinking the more time went by.

How could you possibly have been this oblivious about all this? The fact that it had been right under your nose this whole time but you had been too ignorant to realise it. Ignorance is bliss they say, and for the most part they’re right, for once you know, you can’t unknow. But if Era’Tilos felt the same way as you then it would all work out right?

No. You had to stop this, this isn’t healthy. With a quick shake on the head you shoved your thoughts into the back of your mind, most likely to resurface at another time to be just as uncomfortable as before, but that was a problem future you had to deal with in due time. 

With that out of the way, you turned your gaze forward towards the clearing up ahead and  quickened your pace so not to fall behind. Once the two of you walked out into the open Säijla brought out a large scroll that she held in front of herself before and looked through it quickly before letting go of it to which it reacted by constantly catching fire and combusting in almost an instant, a message spell if you remembered correctly.

“He’ll probably get here within fifteen minutes, so we’ll be waiting for a while.” Säijla stated as the scroll had disappeared. You’ve always had the impression that Säijla didn’t know how to use magic, and seeing her use a scroll confirmed that since scrolls were specially designed for that purpose. 

Just like Säijla said, after a little more than a ten minutes wait, Era’Tilos arrived and descended a few meters away from where you stood blasting wind all around himself. Before Era’Tilos had completely landed, Säijla walked up to him while raising one arm to shield herself from the heavy pulses of the wind that projected from his heavily beating wings. Säijla had to shout to have any chance of her voice being heard in the heavy wind making it quite a funny sight.

Once Era’Tilos had fully landed Säijla lowered her voice and spoke up in her natural tone. The way she spoke to him almost made it feel like this was some sort of debriefing they were having, it was distinctly different from how she usually talked, the only thing she really missing was a map to place a bunch of pins on to mark locations. You found that idea quite funny and let out a small chuckle as you too walked up to Era’Tilos.

Though as you walked up to him those thought resurfaced and another small blush spread across your cheeks and your breath fastened. You had seen his emerald eyes in this kind of light before yet you hadn’t noticed until now just how beautiful they were. Along with that, his black scales almost shimmered in the bright sun making the contrast between the green and white even more of a satisfying sight. His large wings that he held tightly against his body almost absorbed the light into them giving the colour of absolute darkness. Everything about him was just so, captivating.

Your heart almost stopped as Era’Tilos turned his head towards you and you quickly averted your gaze so not to give off the impression that you were staring at him. Even though you tried your best to look elsewhere your eyes seemed to wander back towards him no matter what, making each time you looked at him even more awkward than the last. 

“And I take it you found something you liked, Wess.” Era’Tilos happily stated while looking down at the book you were holding tightly against your chest. Säijla looked back at you at that statement, attempting to say something but stopping before she could get it out, not really knowing what to say if she so did say something. 

“Actually I didn’t buy this, I kind of summoned it?” You answered to that statement causing Era’Tilos to freeze there with a dumbfounded face. He only stood there staring down at you with that face only letting out a confused “huh?” at that.

“You know the thing about my unique magic thing? I’ve kind of been practicing a lot lately and I guess I’ve somewhere along the line learned to summon this book?” You explained further attempting to give him some understanding of what you meant. He looked at Säijla who only nodded as well as shrugging, confirming that yes, it was true, and no she had no idea about why or how.

“That’s… That’s wonderful news!” He blurted out once he got back to his senses, once again resonating with excitement and his usual happiness. It was something that really had started to grow on you, how he always seemed to be so energetic yet still so calm. It was impressive honestly. He further inspected it getting a few different angles on it, retreating backwards once he deemed he had seen every part of the cover. 

“I’m glad things went well.” He said happily as he leaned down so that you and Säijla could climb on up. Säijla didn’t hesitate to jump right up but the same couldn’t be said about you. It was like the first time all over again, your hesitation almost getting the better of you. You took a sharp breath before mustering up enough courage to climb up.

As you sat down behind Säijla you lightly touched and rubbed his smooth scales, probably much more than you should have and way above your usual amount whenever you flew with him. If he did notice it he didn’t say anything and instead proceeded to take off from the ground with quick and powerful beats of his wings.

Even though nothing had changed it still felt that the whole atmosphere of the moment was different than what it used to be, like it was something special about it, the whole sentimentality with Era’Tilos flying you around, with Säijla of course, but that’s beside the point. You gently felt around all the scales that you could reach without having to risk you almost falling of as the fast ascent smoothened out into a calm glide. 

Except for your somewhat inappropriate caressing, nothing happened on the way back except casual conversations between you and Säijla to which Era’Tilos chimed in to once or twice. Era’Tilos dropped Säijla off at her large house that had turned into a second home for you, after Era’Tilos’ cave. 

As Säijla said her goodbyes to the two of you she shot you a discreet wink, before rushing away into the house leaving you alone with Era’Tilos. You had a feeling that it would be either a very long week or a very short one...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll Try to get out the next chapther 17/5 or sooner! See ya then!!


	9. The fallen council

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, once again! As i think all of you know by now, every third chapter is one focused around Pryel and Odium, so here's another one! (since it's chapter nine and so) And hey! It's actually released when I'd said it would be so yay! Without further ado, Enjoy!!

He walked through brightly lit corridor of the city hall with confident steps and walked through the double doors that were held open in front of him by the undead minions into the meeting room where everyone that held any little piece of power for their bi-monthly meeting. The armor he wore echoed it’s steel-like clunking sound throughout the room as he walked in, automatically silencing everyone in the room at his uninvited entrance. The small army of undead, around two hundred soldiers that wore heavy metal plated armor, stopped behind him in unison clearly scaring everyone in the meeting hall. 

“As you all might have noticed by now, we have taken control of the entire city hall.” He spoke up confidently, hands tucked away behind his back as he inspected everyone in the room for any sign of rebellious intent before continuing on. “You can either choose to cooperate or and follow through with what we want or,” As he paused the infantry behind him all drew their swords letting out a united ‘sching’ from the swords as they left their holsters.  “well, it’s pretty self explanatory.” 

The ones sitting around the table gave each other a few terrified looks, but one in particular caught his interest. An female avian stood up from the table even though the other two avians next to her tried to persuade her otherwise by trying to get her to sit back down whilst whispering to her to stop. A small bladed weapon could be seen by her hip and her face was one of unreleased anger just waiting to explode out. 

“And what would make you think that we’d just give you whatever you so wish, just like that?” She snarked angrily at him, causing a small grin to spread across his face. He walked over to her calmly and stopped a meter or so away from her continuing to inspect her as he did that, his grin growing continuing to grow. 

“Well, it would be rather,” He paused his sentence and took her dagger from her hip and stabbed it deep into her shoulder as well as pushing her down onto the chair in a blink of an eye only to continue his sentence with a growl of sorts. “ _ unfortunate  _ if each and everyone of you would be found dead within the next week.” 

He turned around and walked back towards his army and threw aside the dagger, successfully getting his point across. A shaky breath escaped the avians beak as she held her shoulder where she was stabbed, stopping the blood flow as well as numbing the pain somewhat in the process. It wasn’t hard to see the hatred that was steadily growing within her eyes but her voice confirmed it even further.

“So what kind of bullshit charade do we have to join in on to save our own ass?” She managed to let out, pain and desperation tracing her every word. He clasped his hands, shooting an over exerted smile back at her.

“I’m glad you asked! Me and my…  _ master  _ have have some things we would like to do, and all you need to do is, pull a few strings here and there. You now? Get the ball rolling.” He said whilst walking over to the head of the table, shooing  away the man that was currently sitting there and taking his place in the chair. 

“Now let’s get to the point.” He bluntly states, dismissing the army, only leaving two of the most heavily armored undeads inside the room, standing on guard next to the double doors. He grabbed the map that was conveniently placed nearby his current position and placed it in front of him, marking a few spots before pushing it towards the centre of the table, so that everyone could see it.

“There are some… things in these locations that I would like to get a hold of, what I want you to do, is keep an eye on them, maybe even giving an opening for me to get in there personally. Sounds good?” Most of the people around the table agreed with him almost instantly, too scared of what would happen if they didn’t, while others weren’t so quick to join his side, mainly the non-humans, yet no one acted upon it. Those who complied looked at the markings to distinguish what building he was talking about. He had circled four buildings on the map, one of the towers near the west entrance, a library at the south side of the plaza, a church up in the south-east corner, and a bar in the northern urban parts of the city. 

The people that had decided to just follow his commands began to search for the files that contained the information about the previously mentioned buildings. Once they found the appropriate files they placed them on the table and began looking through them, noting down anything that could be of use to them, names, dates, connections, such things. A few minutes went by as he let the council do their thing, before he raised his voice again, giving the council new orders.

“Okay! Okay! Lets not get to excited here, we wont be doing anything just yet, just keep files at hand, and we’ll get to that later, but for now, you’re all dismissed.” He blurted out, his lack of patience more than visible in his voice. As the crowd quickly sat up from the table, grabbing whatever they had, he pointed directly the avian that he had stabbed a while back and continued. “Except you.” He blankly stated, poison dripping from his mouth.

She froze in her tracks, along with her associates, looking back at him with mutually dead eyes. She said something in a low tone between the three of them, a promise of sorts, causing them to look back at her with fear before hesitantly leaving the room without her, leaving her alone with him.

“I admire your courage, I really do.” He stated as he stood up from the table, not even looking at her while he did so. “That is why, we have decided to give you a special little mission.” He stated, finally looking back at her, that smug grin still lining his face. 

“‘We’?” She quickly shoots out, keeping her distance while watching his every move, careful of what he might do if he got close to her.

“Yes, we. Actually, what's the point of me explaining it when you can just meet him yourself.” At that, the shadows behind him started to grow, casting themself all over the walls before they started forming into a large beast like shape.

“I would like you to meet, Odium.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is already in the making, so expect that one arriving on the 31th!


	10. Decisions and actions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I originally wanted to make things happen much faster then what it have been, but the more 'Romance' theme is finally deserved as a real tag now, so thats something im happy about! Also, I didn't post this chapter late, which is also a plus so yay!! Other than that, please enjoy this a little more cute and wholesome chapter!! ^w^/

The days had been passing extremely slowly since Säijla had been so nice to enlighten you about your feeling towards the dragon, along with planting a few more than inappropriate thought into your mind. It got so bad so that you even had started to avoid him, trapping yourself in your room, that Era’Tilos had kind of just given to you when you first arrived here.

Most of the time you spent reading the book, page for page, and something you realised almost instantly was that it was constantly changing it’s inside, almost adapting to what you wanted to know and needed to know in that moment. Every time you opened it something had changed inside of it. The only thing that remained consistent what seemed to be instructions on how to use your abilities, or what the book constantly called it, ‘Aura of the void’ which was an odd choice of words seeing as it had summoned something. 

What intrigued you the most though, was the many pages that only contained a title, the rest of it remaining blank, as if it was waiting before it would show you what was written there. On the other hand, what was revealed had sped up the learning process by who knows how much, but it had definitely taught you a trick or two. 

The thing that you were currently trying to learn was simply named ‘Rift’ but it was the practicality of it that had caught your eye. It would let you open up a pocket dimension to either store items in, or even, go into yourself. The hardest part about it, as expected was of course, learning how to both open the rift, and  actually keeping it stable. It took almost all of your concentration to open it, how you would be able to hold it stable as well was beyond you. The whole process of channeling your energy into it while still concentrating on other things wasn’t something you were able to do at the current moment, and it more than hindered when it came to this.

You let the rift vanish, a heavy sigh leaving you as it did. Your motivation had just to keep on practicing had just disappeared lately, with everything that had happened, and you didn’t dare to talk to Era’Tilos about it, in fear of you maybe saying just enough for him to find out. It was all in all, just so, saddening. He had already noticed that you were acting weird since the two of you came back, so it didn’t really matter that you remained in your own solitude, which didn’t really make you feel any better, since apparently, socialising was kind of a necessity to one's mental health.

The only real solution you had to this problem was to talk to someone about it, but right now, Era’Tilos was the only one you could talk to, and he was the last one on your list you wanted to talk about this to. And now, all of this weight was really starting to pile itself on top of you, dragging your emotions down with it into the fire of despair and angst. It was understandable that Era’Tilos left you alone, he probably thought you needed time for yourself or something along those lines, but it still affected you, it almost felt like he was just trying to ignore it, even though you knew that wasn’t the case. 

It was really just another case of different creatures coping differently, and seeing as Era’Tilos was nothing close to a human, so who could blame him for not knowing how to deal with it correctly? 

A few days had went by, and it was obvious that Era’Tilos had started to worry quite a lot about you. He had started to check on you much more often as well as trying to comfort you in his own way, which was most of the time him sneaking up on you and covering you with his wings and pulling you close to him, and to be completely honest, it did work really well, only problem being that, it did kind of get your mind racing about everything that you were trying so hard not to think about, rendering the entire thing really counterproductive. It usually just ended with you excusing yourself before running away and hiding somewhere. It was only a matter of time before he found out why you were acting the way you did. 

You fell back down on the large stone bed, once again interrupted by the endless wandering of your mind. Era’Tilos could be heard moving around in the, what you had always seen as the equivalent to a hall or a living room. His shadow seeped into your room from time to time, darkening it significantly each time due to its lack of other light sources. It wasn’t something that had bothered you though, to be honest it kinda made it even more cozy if anything. The only thing that could possibly make it even cozier was if you’d actually feel safe there, or in your own mind for that matter. But whatever you did you just couldn’t block it out.

As it went quiet outside of your room signaling that Era’Tiolos was either gone or asleep, you stood up, deciding that now was a good time to try and sneak out of the cave in hopes of taking refuge in the forest beyond the cliff. You quietly made your way out of your room, sneaking past Era’Tilos who was sleeping in the corner as usual, before making your way out of the cave and out into the fresh air.

The calm wind brushed your face as you started to make your way down the cliff, the dust particles from the ground spreading through the air as you carefully descended the mountain. Once you got down you instantly took off into the forest letting the easily treaded paths guide you into the unknown. You weren’t scared of getting lost since it wouldn’t be hard to make your way back to a giant mountain in the middle of everything, plus getting lost wasn’t close to the nearly worst thing that could happen. 

You continued deeper into the forest until you came across a lake where you decided to stay, at least for the time being. The water reflected the orange glow of the sun, giving it a mirror like appearance apart from the small ripples caused by the wind. It was truly a beautiful sight, yet it was still something bittersweet about it, about this whole situation. You just felt so, alone. 

“I’m not surprised you came out here to get your peace of mind.” Era’Tilos spoke up from behind you causing you to flinch and turn back towards him only to be greeted by his large wings sweeping you up to himself. 

“You’ve been distant lately. Whatever you might have on your mind I just want you to know that I’m here for you, and I don’t want you to continue to hide yourself from it.” He continued, comforting you the best he could. You wanted to run away, yet your body refused to do anything. Instead you leaned in even closer resting your head on his warm scales, letting him lull you deeper into his embrace, hoping that he would never let go. 

“Please Wess, talk to me.” He meekly asked, holding on to you even more tightly, as if he was scared of losing you, which he in all honestly was. You didn’t respond since you were unsure on what you where even going to say if you so decided to do so. Where would you even begin? Was it even a good idea to say how you really felt? He would be okay with it…? Right?

“You don’t dislike me, do you?” He suddenly asked, softening by his grip on you as well as moving his head away from you in an almost terrified manner. 

“What? No, no! Not at all! It is the complete opposite of that...” You responded slowing down the sentence as you realized what you had just said. You quickly scrambled and hid your face against his warm scales that were exposed to you by his chest  in embarrassment, hoping that he wouldn’t catch on to what you meant by that. Unlucky enough for you, it seemed like he understood exactly what you meant by that, and he certainly wasn’t scared off acting upon it either. 

He stared at you for a short moment, the suspense of it almost stopping time completely as the silence grew. Everything started moving again when he shifted and rebalanced his weight before surrounding you completely by his body, his head resting on top of yours, and his wings hugging tightly onto your body. Nothing was said between the two of you, instead he lightened his grip on you and put his large muzzle against your mouth, letting his emerald eyes stare right onto yours as he did so. He rested his maw on your much smaller mouth for a short moment before opening his slightly letting his tongue brush against you, asking to be let in. You complied, opening up for him and letting him enter your mouth to explore it however he so pleased. 

The feeling of the two of you like this just felt so… right, like this was how it was supposed to be all along. You pushed against him as he explored deeper and deeper, almost continuing down your throat but backing out as he reached that far. He pulled back away from you, resting his forehead against yours causing you to let out a content hum.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for quite some time, Wess.” Era’Tilos finally states, letting a low rumble echo through his words, sending vibrations throughout your whole body. 

“I can’t say I haven’t thought about it…” You admitted meekly, the already visible blush growing even brighter by the second, but you didn’t care. You didn’t want this to stop. Ever. It felt like you finally could just let go and feel, safe. He went in for another kiss, and you happily obliged, letting him once more explore the insides of your mouth. Everything about this was just so, magical. His soft scales, his gentle touch, his warm embrace. 

A small moan slipped out of your throat as your tongues joined each other in their dance. A deep rumble echoed from Era’Tilos as he started pushing against you even harder, but he didn’t stop there. He laid you against the ground, his wings the only thing between you and the grass, as he hovered a decimeter or so above you, while still invading you with his tongue. Your breath had started to wear thin, and you pulled back away from him to allow air to travel back down into your lungs. The two of you stared at each other while breathing heavily after the long kiss. Era’Tilos laid down next to you, still holding his wings around you in a protective manner. 

“So this was the reason you’ve been so distant?” He asks quietly in between his rumbles, while aso pulling you closer to him like before. You nodded, confirming that it was the cause of all your distress. A light laugh escaped him and he moved a little closer to you and dove his muzzle into your hair, letting out a warm gust with his every exhale. You heard him say something more, but it got lost somewhere along the way as you drifted off in his embrace.


	11. Experimenting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE, but thats not all, there will also be another chapter right after this one!! Neither chapters may be that long, but this will be the catalyst for things to start picking up! Things are finally going the way a waaant iiiiit! :3

After the confrontation at the lake things took a turn for the better, both you and Era’Tilos became much more comfortable around each other. You finally stopped hiding away in your room all day as well as stopped getting distracted whenever you were trying to test something new, except when that distraction was Era’Tilos, of course.

It didn’t take Säijla long to notice the change between you and Era’Tilos when the two of you traveled back to her place, and just as expected she didn’t hold back on the teasing, which mostly consisted of innuendos to no one’s surprise. The time you didn’t spend by the house was either spent with Säijla or Era’Tilos at the battleground practicing whatever that came to mind. 

Most of the practicing with Era’Tilos was just you reading through your book while Era’Tilos relaxed under some trees, only speaking up whenever he felt that you were struggling or when you asked him directly. The sessions with Säijla on the other hand were much more, hectic to say the least. It also consisted of much more experimenting, since Säijla was more than happy to find weird ways to make arrows explode, or implode for that matter.

Today wouldn’t be much different than that, but you didn’t really mind it. This was how you preferred it to be, just generally calm with maybe one or two more ‘special’ things happening in the future. And that was exactly how things were right now. You were quite curious about what the actual purpose of the trip to Endale was all about, and it would seem like that question would be answered fairly soon seeing as the three of you would head back in there for a meeting of some sort. Era’Tilos hadn’t informed you about the exact nature of it, but that only helped fuel your interest. 

You looked over towards Era’Tilos and smiled lightly seeing him bathing his scales in the warm orange glow of the sun, only waking up from his naps whenever ‘fluctuations could be felt in the amount of magical energy’ as he kept referring it to, which as far as you know only happened whenever you did something incorrectly or just generally messed around without a set goal in mind. That and, whenever you so happened to do something with the orb.

The few times you had experimented with it had usually resulted in something going out of control, which led you to believe that it the orb had empowering properties, or something along those lines. It was odd to say the least, seeing as you made, or at least, summoned it. Now that you come to think of it, there were so many things that had been left unexplained. Era’Tilos still hadn’t revealed those other reasons of taking you in when the two of you first met. You didn’t question it at first, but now, it had really started to claw at you.

You shook it of with a quick pat to the head and turned back to your book that you had laid on the ground next to you, and continued to practice whatever sounded interesting or was possible at the current moment. While searching through the book for something interesting to try, an idea struck you. A giant light pillar only visible to certain people, like a beacon one could create if anyone got separated or similar. 

You quickly rushed to find a page explaining the process of creating or combining spells. Once located you quickly read through the page before shooting up and following the steps.  _ To combine spells you must cast them simultaneously while also letting them seep into each other, thereby binding the two into one.  _ You tested who knows how many different combinations before coming close to doing what you had set out do achieve, and it would seem like a message spell and a light summoning spell worked well together. The only question was, how would one make it so that it could only be seen by a select few?

It took you almost a whole hour before you managed to get any more progress with the experimenting, but once you did, it was something of a breakthrough. When you casted the spell, only changing a few things in how you forged the two spells together, a blue beam shot up into the sky in front of you, alerting anyone that could see it of your current location. You took a step back in surprise and looked up to the sky to see the beam only climbing higher and higher.

“Era’Tilos? Era’Tilos! Can you see this!?” You shouted while glancing back at him but quickly looking back towards the thin beam of blue light. You heard Era’Tilos stand up and approach you but didn’t bother looking back at him until he was standing right next to you looking up into the sky where you were gazing. 

“What is it that I’m supposed to be looking at?” he asks looking back at you with a slightly confused look. It wouldn’t seem like he’s able to see the beam, so you tried disassembling the energy before putting it back together. All it really did was cause the beam to disappear for a short duration. 

“Wait what if I…” You quickly shoved your hand into one of your pockets and took a hold of the small orb, channeling the energy within it to help you do what you so wished to do. The beam disappeared once more, but instead of coming back identical to how it looked previously, it instead ruptured out a giant red beam out of the ground sending a heavy shock wave away from it forcing you to cover your face with one of your arm. 

“What in the..!?” Era’Tilos exclaims as the powerful beam shot up into the sky lighting up the sky with it’s intense red glow. You didn’t expect the sudden increase of power caused by the orb, but it seemed like it had done what you wanted it to do, seeing as Era’Tilos could see it now. Although, you were unsure of it was only him or that is was visible for everyone, which you hoped wasn’t the case.

“That might have been a little too much energy…” You commented to yourself, not really intending for it to be heard by Era’Tilos, or anyone else for that matter. But it would seem like someone else did hear it, as a voice you didn’t recognise spoke up from behind you.

**_“Yes. I can confirm, that was indeed, a little, too much energy.”_ **


	12. Ain't the truth just bittersweet, love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND THE SECOND ONE! This one is a little different from the rest, but should still be an important in the story, so enjooooy! ^w^

**_“Let me tell you a story of not so long ago. Back when the war was still raging on. A story, of what truly happened that night. That night when you died. You see, you were the key to ending the war, and it was only natural that both sides wanted you, just for that reason. So they fought for you, as well as against each other. But, you weren’t an idiot, and you knew that neither side had a just cause in mind. Around the same time, two new sides, or, groups had formed. They both fought in the shadows, where no one could see who or why they were. You would come to join one them, a decision so important that it would send ripples through the flow of time. Changing the future drastically. But those decisions didn’t go unpunished, did they? No, the other group weren’t happy that you had joined the opposing side, and sought out to end you, as well as them, yet only managed to do the first. They tracked you down, and when they finally found you, they killed you. Oh I tried to do something but it was all in vain. They stabbed you in both your shoulders before cutting you in the chest. From there they went on to getting a grip on your rib cage as you screamed in agony. With a heavy yank they proceeded to tear it out of your chest, your guts following right after. Your lungs, liver, heart, everything was pulled straight out of you only leaving a bloody mess on the ground. While I was unable to save you, I eradicated EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM TILL NOTHING REMAINED OF THEIR WORTHLESS EXISTENCE. But it wouldn’t bring you back. You would still be gone. Nothing more than a memory of what you used to be. And it was all my fault. Do you have any idea for HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO BRING YOU BACK?! HOW MANY YEARS THAT I HAVE BEEN ALL ALONE IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN WORLD?! And for what? FOR YOU TO GO AND GET TOGETHER WITH SOME FUCKING DRAGON?! And not just any dragon at that, it’s the dragon that IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DEATH. So I beg of you. Join me, let us be together once more. Let us be whole again, my love.”_ **


	13. Assembling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay, this writers block really messed my momentum up. It should be fine for now though hopefully, I've already started on the next chapter so there shouldn't be anything stopping that from getting out there in time. (that would be the 19th.) It really sucks that I this got delayed, hopefully it wont happen again, but I can't say for certian.   
> With that out of the way, I hope y'all enjoy this chapter ^u^

“As some of you have already been informed off, we are less than happy to inform all of you that, we might have problem once more. Namely that, Odium, who were all so familiar with, is back.” Whispers broke out between the three others that sat around the small table as soon as Säijla paused. Aiie looked especially worried, seeing as she hadn’t been informed beforehand, unlike the others who had time to digest the information before the actual meeting. 

“But, we sealed him away for good, he couldn’t possibly have just broken out of that, could he?.” Aiie asked worriedly pulling the attention of the others to her. There was a short moment of silence before the Lizardfolk beside her spoke up.

“It is possible, but highly unlikely. A more plausible theory could be that he had outside help, and that would also mean, he’s not alone anymore.” It was his turn to draw the attention of everyone around the table, but just as quickly he gained it it was averted when one of the newer members spoke up.

“I thought he had an army or something, wouldn’t those be allies of his that could set him free?” The newly recruited male avian proposed to the lizardfolk. Before he could continue with what he was saying the lizardfolk spoke up, shutting down whatever was about to be added,

“That army is only a bunch of brainless corpses, victims of the war that he has corrupted. They can’t to anything without him.” The lizardfolk explained, instantly killing that theory where it was placed. He looked at the empty chair next to the avian and switched the subject temporarily. “By the way, where’s Qell?” He asked the avian, but instead of him responding Säijla did.

“She said she got caught up with something at the council, something about the new guidelines or something.” She said, not really interested in the topic. 

“That’s odd. She hasn’t told me anything about that.” The avian added to the topic that had been originally directed towards him. 

“She didn’t tell you anything? That’s odd.” Säijla responded  before continuing. “Just, run everything past her tomorrow or something, okay?” She said before discarding the current topic and changing it back to the previous one. 

“Anyways, back to the mission at hand. Since we have no idea where Odium is at this current moment we can’t really do anything, but what we can do is check out his previous known locations of operations. But even more important than that, we need to find out how the hell he got out, and to do that,”

“We need to return to the point of origin.” Aiie finished, understanding exactly what that meant, the others also catching on to it. Säijla snapped her fingers and pointed towards her, confirming that what she said was exactly what the idea was.

“So that means we’re going to go back to the crypt?” The lizardfolk asked, suddenly extremely determined to the cause for some unknown reason. 

“Yeah, Midnight has been scouting out the area for some time now as well as some other points of interest but it would probably be the best move to try and find out how he got out so we know exactly what we’re fighting.” She added, getting a few nods from the rest of them before she continued with the plan. “Me, Derra and Aiie are going to check it out tomorrow, see what we can find and report back here with the next plan of action. Eppa, inform Qell that we’ll be needing her soon. That's all for now, dismissed.” She ended of the debrief with that and let everyone return to their own devices. They all said their goodbyes and left, except Derra, who was most definitely concerned about something, the stiff movement of his tail confirming that even further.

“There’s more to the story with Midnight, isn’t there? I don’t really buy that he’s only out scouting, it’s not like him.” He asked hesitantly, concerned and slightly scared of the answer he might get. Säijla let out a deep sigh, trying to gather up all the relevant information about Midnight’s actual reason behind his absence.

“Yeah, well you’re not wrong there. There’s a lot more than you would think. To start from the beginning, we have already made contact with Odium.” 

“Excuse me what!? Why didn’t you inform us of this!?” Derra practically shouted out the instant he had processed the information. Säijla tried to calm him down, not to make too much of a ruckus, the others likely still being in hearing range. 

“It isn’t vital to the plans as of right now, and also it isn’t as simple as that. You remember that I informed you about the new human, wess, right?” She started, waiting for his confirmation. He responded with a confused yes, and she continued. “For starters, his magical capabilities are through the roof, it’s actually insane the things he has done, no idea where his limits actually are. Anyways, Midnight took a real liking to him, and well, they kinda hooked up. Then Odium showed up out of nowhere, and he was gone. Odium probably found out about it and wanted him for himself. But yeah, Midnight hasn’t been stable since then.” She explained, trying to get out as much information in as few words as possible. Derra stared at her, for a moment, not really sure what to make out of all, or how to react. After a solid half minute had been spent just processing the information he managed to speak up. 

“This is going to be problematic...” Derra didn’t really have anything more to say on the subject, not knowing nearly enough to really have anything of value to add to it other than that comment. Säijla sighed,, placing her hands on her hips while mumbling out a sad ‘yeah.’

“We’re doing everything we can right now to just figure out where he’s holding him, or to just get contact with Wess, but at the current moment there's just not much we can do.” Säijla continued, causing the already large shadow on the subject only grow in size but quickly lighting a torch as she continued. “But, while we might not know much as of right now that doesn’t mean that we’ll just give up! We’ll pull through, one way or another.” She finished, sparking a small flame off hope in the darkness, successfully boosting their moral in their current bleak situation.

“If you have hope, so do I.” Derra responds, smiling back at her before he began collecting all his things and started walking out of the room, after the rest of the group. Säijla stayed behind, looking back where everyone had exited, her hand making its way to the other one similarly to how one would whenever one tried to comfort oneself. 

“Yeah, hope…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I'm so sorry about the delay, I will do everything I can to make sure it doesn't happen again.


	14. Downfall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Im back on track, actually releasing the chapter when I said I would, yay me! Things are really starting to take of right now so hopefully that will help me get a good flow in the writing. Anyways, hope you enjoy the chapter!!

 

 

The party of three approached the large crypt, the overgrown structure covered in all kinds of vegetation due to the lack of care putten into the structure. They walked up the large white staircase up to the large entrance, the large marble white pillars of the structure covered in all kinds of vines.

“I didn’t expect this place to be so… big. ” Aiie muttered out as they walked through the large opening. The insides of it were just as overgrown as the outside, if not more. Though what grabbed everyone’s attention was the almost completely covered remains of a body. It could barely be classified as a body anymore, the flesh almost completely gone and what was now left a playground for all types of flora.

“Well, I think it’s safe to say that Odium has been here.” Säijla stated, letting out a worried laugh as they approached the corpse to inspect it. The pieces of flesh that was still there had turned a murky green colour, with plants all around it covering larger parts of the corpse. Aiie approached it, letting one of her appendages poke around on it for a short duration before she pulled back away.

“Organ damage, blood loss. Stabbed through the lower chest region, approximately three weeks ago.” She stated, having seemingly deducted all of that with a quick look and a few pokes on the corpse. Derra looked at her, surprised over her capability to notice all of that with so little. Säijla however had moved away from the corpse and further into the large room and over to what was supposed to be the seal.

“Knowing the cause of death and stuff is good and all, but I think we should take a look at this…” A large crystal, the seal, was pulsing with a dark purple glow, yet somehow not lighting up it’s surrounding. Multiple cracks had begun to form releasing a black ooze from it, smudging it’s surface as it slowly trickled down.

“What even is this stuff..?” Säijla asked, poking the ooze as she did so. It stuck to her finger as she pulled back and inspected it up close. It was thick slime like texture, sticky enough to stick to almost anything it made contact with.

Before anyone was able to make a comment on it, a powerful wave of energy hit them, knocking all of them to the ground. They were pushed to the ground for a good moment before the shockwave disappeared, but just as they started to recover it came back even stronger than before.

“What the hell is happening?!” Säijla shouts out, the pulse of energy hitting them without any type of warning. Neither Derra or Aiie heard her cry, both of them too caught up in trying to protect themself from the shockwave. It continued to blow past them for a minute or two before vanishing completely, leaving them to themself, confused and scared. Once they were sure the blast wouldn’t come back, they slowly stood up, recovering from the experience. They looked at each other, worried glances filling each others vision.

“What… what was that..?” Aiie, whispered out, her voice shaking with uncertainty and fear. They turned to her, staring at her almost exactly as confused as she was, unable to even push out a vague theory of what it might have been.

“Whatever it was, it can’t be a good sign..” Derra finally manages to say. The other two agree with him, discarding the mission they currently had and moved out of the temple like structure. The first notable thing they saw when they walked out into the open was a bright purple light shining from the sky. A pillar of light reaching up into the clouds above had appeared out of nowhere, likely the source of the sudden energy spike. The clouds around the beam were circeling, as if trying to move closer towards the source yet unable to due to all of the energy being poured out of it.

They stared up at the beam for quite some time, unable to say anything, too surprised by the light show being displayed in front of them. It took quite some time before anyone said anything, Säijla being the one to breaking the silence, having seemingly realised what all of this meant.

“We need to assemble the team. Now.”

 

 

The cold wind howled all around Era’Tilos, blowing against his scales like small daggers trying to grant themself passage into his flesh. It didn’t bother him though, as it was not uncommon for dragons to set up their nest in a frozen mountain, or in the cold climates of the north were he was currently in. If anything, it helped him focus on the mission at hand, the cold reminding him of what was at stake here. The only bad thing was that due to the cold environment the wind was only a liability, a storm having the possibility of clouding his vision completely and forcing him to have to take shelter for the time of it’s duration therefor who knows how much time would be wasted.

With all of that in mind, he increased his speed, the wind biting against him even harder. His sight were trained on the ground while his mind were focusing on the magical energy around him, the fluctuation of it having the possibility of being a hint that something out of the ordinary could be nearby, notebly Odium. Or Wess.

To no one's surprise, the ground was completely barren, devoid of any signs of life, but that was what made it so promising. Odium wouldn’t have chosen to hide away where there were any type of civilization, they were a threat to him after all, so choosing a place like this seemed like a no brainer. 

With nothing out of the normal spotted in this area, Era’Tilos continued further up north, up towards a mountain range. As he made his way over toward the range, a sudden wave of energy caused him to lose control for a moment, almost causing him to come down barrelling down towards the ground. He recovered from the blast, the energy still all around him, not dissipating. The strength of the wave was almost up to par with something of a supernova, just being close to it being a big huge risk but staying inside of the aura even larger one. Even though it was nowhere close to anything he had ever felt or even heard about, there was some kind of familiarity to it. 

Determined to find the source of the energy, he once again increased his speed, flying towards the mountains as fast as he could while also trying to endure the intensity of the neverending wave. As he drew closer to the energys origin, the vast wave suddenly disappeared for a short duration. It had him, perplexed to say the least, but before he could really think about it, the wave returned, even stronger than before. 

Due to the extreme nature of the energy, it forced Era’tilos to retreat, the power of it too much for even him to bear. Though even retreating wasn’t easy, the wave of energy shooting him in out of his u-turn and into a dive headed straight towards the snowy ground. This time, he wasn’t able to recover from it, he only continued to accelerate towards the ground below. He closed his eyes as he closed in on the frozen ground and awaited the inevitable hard impact.

A few seconds passed, and then he crashed against the ground, pain shooting through his entire body as he bounced of it, the friction finally stopping his momentum after he had slid a few dozen meters. His vision was blurry, a loud ring coursing through his ears, and his entire body aching with pain. Unable to move he laid there, the freezing snow covering him as it began collapsing on top of him, soon to bury him completely, erasing any sign of his violent impact. 

The snow that was still around him had started to taken on a green like shade, large wounds covering his body, leaking it’s green blood all over the surrounding area. His wings were also bleeding, most likely broken as well, the green streams of blood trickling down them onto the now green snow underneath. The longer he laid there, the less he felt, like he was slowly losing himself. First the pain began to fade away and shortly after so did any other kind of sensation, good or bad. Once that was gone, his vision disappeared, leaving him to himself in his own mind, and soon after that, even his consciousness left him, leaving behind his slowly dying body in the cold, freezing, snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry about all of this, but it had to happen, the story must progress, and this is just one of many things I have to do to make that happen.
> 
> I hope you enjoyyyeeed it..?


	15. Ten years after it all ended

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are once again! I was able to write this chapter surprisingly quickly, which gives me more time to make sure the other chapters WONT be delayed! (because we've had way too many of those so far.) Im really happy with how this turned out, so I hope you enjoy it as well! Nothing else to say, here it is!!

A sharp stabbing pain ran through your body as the cold steel of the blade ran over your body. Your blood ran cold out of both of your wrist, covering the slab where you laid in the crimson red liquid. The carvings in the slab filled up with blood, red lines running back and forth, forming patterns and shapes of the large quantity of drained blood.

There was nothing around you but endless darkness, your body not responding to anything you told it to do. There was still something there though, the blade slowly creeping up your body towards your throat, confirming just that. Before the cold steel wandered onto your throat it disappeared, a large hand instead taking ahold of your neck, the claws on it wrapping their way all around your gullet, playfully tapping against you.

 **_“Oh it sure sure is nice to finally have you back, Wess. I have so many things planned for the two of us once everything has been placed into their rightful positions…”_ **  The voice whispered to you, it’s pleasant familiarity calming your senses.

There was an energy all around you slowly building up, something generating large quantities of unreleased arcana. As it grew in strength your blood stopped flowing down your arms and body and instead began ascending, seemingly dripping upwards into the darkness. The blood on the slab did the same, small streams of the red liquid forming and climbing upwards until they disappeared in the shadows above.

 **_“I do hope that my book came in good use for you, although I didn’t expect that you would call for me so soon, must have been boring with that disgrace of a dragon.”_ ** The voice continued, as it did whatever it was doing just barely hidden within the shadows. You didn’t really understand what they meant by you calling for them, there hadn’t been a single moment so far that you’ve even known about this beings existence, so how could you have possibly contacted them? And his book? Were they talking about the same book that you had been carrying around for so long?

 **_“Now if you’d be so kind, where did you store that orb of yours?~”_ ** It didn’t really strike you as an actual question, the being already aware of how to retrieve it. With a snap of their claws, the orb appeared, floating just so calmly as it always did, but this time it was different. The blood that had been drained form you began gravitating towards it, the orb absorbing everydrop that came in contact with it until there was nothing more to be absorbed.

A weak purple glow was now resonating from it, signaling that whatever it’s true purpose was, was now ready to be revealed. With that, a large arm reached out from the darkness, the arm in question seemingly constructed out of pure shadow itself. It grabbed the orb with two of its claws holding it steady for a short duration. Before crushing it, the shards of it disappearing into thin air.

A short moment of nothing passed before an immense wave of energy was release from the orbs destruction. It hit you with its full force, a never ending wave of the now uncontained power that was now attempting to take refuge wherever it could, with you stuck in the crossfire. Until all of it just disappeared. But that wasn’t the end of it.

The wounds that you had began healing at an incredibly fast rate, and your mind began clearing up, from it’s previous half conscious state. As this happened the wave of energy returned, but it didn’t just eject itself out away from its original location, no, It all made its way straight towards you, having selected you as its vessel.

There was nothing you could do to stop it, you couldn’t even brace yourself for the unfathomable amount of magical energy surging through the air into you. You could feel it all inside of you, the arcana flowing through your veins, energizing your entire body in the process. All of it was just too much for you and you weren’t able to store the sheer magical energy anywhere.

Only one thing left to do, you let it all out, causing light to erupt from you as well as a shockwave of all the excess energy that you weren’t able to hold onto. There was just so much energy that had to be released, your maximum capacity having been reached long ago. It was then, when you finally managed to get rid of it all that everything came back to you. You finally remembered. All of it. Every. Single. Detail.

 **_“Welcome back to the world of the living, Wess. It has been truly lonely here without your guidance.”_ ** Odium spoke up, the shadows that were previously obscuring them gone, his true form finally visible. For most people, the monstrous appearance of the shadow creature would be terrifying, but not you, no, not at all. You weren’t one to be scared of a being of your own creation. Because that was what they were, an entity all of your own crafting.

“How… long has it been, Odium?” You asked them, stretching ever so slightly as you came back from the overflow of energy. They helped you ever so slightly to find your balance before you took a few unseasy steps. The control you seemed to have now was an, appreciated change. Everything just seemed so clear to you. Like you knew all you needed to know.

 **_“It has been over ten years since you died. The world has changed quite a lot since then, and the war has finally ended.”_ ** They answered, watching you intently as you tested old spells, seeing how out of it you truly were. Not finding yourself too rusted you summoned yourself a coat, the very same coat that you had before your death. Oh how it brought back memories. Memories that you could actually remember for once.

“So what have you been doing while I was gone? If the war has ended there’s nothing more to be done.” You ask them, to which a large grin appeared on their face. They looked down at you for a moment, doing their usual shadow being move, relocating himself beside you as if the wind had taken ahold of both their shape and form.

 **_“Since you have been busy with your own things, I took some things into my own hand.”_ ** They always had this tendency to keep things vague, either when explaining things or just talking in general it was just the personality they had developed over their time existing. You knew that they would never lie to you, the worst they could manage to do was not filling you in on the whole story, like a child having to explain themself to their parents after a small fight had broken loose or something similar.

“Details, Odium, details. I need to know what you’ve been up to.” You responded, to their disapproval. They would much rather not have to explain more, but that didn’t seem to be the case now that you had practically commanded them to fill you in. They exhaled heavily before settling in slightly in front of you, their physicality coming back just as they began explaining.

 **_“After your death, I took everything that you were trying to do into my own claws. I formed an army of the already dead and began eliminating anyone who opposed me or your goal. Yet it would seem that in the process I gained many powerful enemies, some of which had previously opposed you. Most of them were just mere humans, the only reason for their strength being their worthless riches. They didn’t last long in this war of ours. Other, were actually worth our time and effort. Some in possession of ancient artifacts rivaling the gods, others being powerful magic casters. They bound together with one mutual goal in mind, to banish this ‘evil’ that was plaguing their land. How foolish they truly were, not seeing their own wrongs. I was only following your wishes, to rid this world of the endless war, by any means necessary. I was so close to winning the war, to finally being able to end it all, but my efforts were proven to have been in vain, by banishment happening shortly before the final battle were to begin.”_ ** They explained, looking just slightly beside you, not willing to see you in the eyes too afraid of what they might find within them. Yet they didn’t stop there, but they continued telling their story.

 **_“After a few years of being banished, I awoke from my intended endless sleep. The seal had begun to be corrupted by my dark presence, and I was able to break free of my prison. I started off small, keeping to the shadows, only revealing my existence to the ones who could aid us. But as time went on, I grew in power, and before long, I was back to what I used to be. But the war had already ended and there wasn’t anything left to do, except to restore things to what they once was. And that meant, bringing you back. I spent years looking for a way to resurrect you, yet I found only emptiness. Until, one day, I finally found out how. While your physical form would be completely recovered, your memories would be gone. But, you had made a safeguard for such a situation. The orb, an artifact storing magic worth millenniums of arcane energy. All of it, built up over years all by you. If it would be broken, all of it would go back to whence it came, back to you. And with it, everything you have ever done.”_ ** They finish, deeming this enough information to make you happy, yet not revealing enough to actually take into consideration of all the things that you might not have approved of.

“That still doesn’t explain how things went the way the did, why I ended up with Era’Tilos and…” Your mind came into a sudden halt as the dragon you had been spending all your time with entered your mind.

“Era’Tilos… Where is he?” You quickly demanded, Odium flinching back to the sudden command.

 **_“Don’t you remember what he did? You don’t have to care about that creature anymore, Wess, he has served his purpose.”_ ** He quickly retaliated, not wanting him to have anything to do with you. All you did was give him an angry glare and they flinched back shrinking slightly in the process. Before giving you an actual answer.

 **_“I am unsure of his current location, but I have reasons to believe he is once again assembling his group of ‘heroes’ to fight us once again.”_ ** You let out a sigh, standing right infront of them while looking their eyes. It might have looked weird for anyone else, seeing a small human intimidate a giant shadow monster with just a gaze alone, but this was just how things were between them and you. There was a moment of silence before the two of you, before you gave them their orders, clear and simple.

“Find him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I haven't gone a single chapter without some sort of cliffhanger, I guess thats just kind of the way I write. It's not the most liked things, (especially when there's a two week delay between chapters, sorry 'bout that ^^'') but I just have an easier time continuing with everything if I do so. Im honestly not sure how many more chapters there will be in this story, It might be reaching it's end pretty soon, but who knows honestly, I might feel like ending the world before that happens forcing it to be atleast a few more chapters longer.
> 
> Anyways, I'll see you in the next chapter!!


	16. The calm before the storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are once again! I had quite a hard time writing this chapter if I'm going to be honest, didn't really know where I wanted it to go, but it turned out pretty well either way! I gotta thank by beta-reader GalexiaFireHeart for looking through this chapter and possibly more in the future! With that said, here it is!!

“I can’t find him Derra, I just can’t.” Säijla spoke up as the lizard man walked into the room, the table she leaned over covered with papers, scrolls and other magical components. Her head fell from her arms and slammed against the hard wood, some of the things went flying off the table and down onto the floor as her head made contact with the surface. 

Derra stopped in his tracks, hesitant in approach her when she was this distressed, but decided to do so either way. Picking up the things that had fallen down and arranging them into a neat little pile back on the table as he approached Säijla , his hand stroked her back in hopes of it calming her down at least somewhat.

“First it was Wess, and now Era as well? This was not how it was supposed to go...” She mumbled out, the weight of all the responsibilities she had been carrying starting to take its toll on her. It had always been one of the more destructive things she did, try to do too much until she broke. This wasn’t a good time for her to be like this, especially with Era’Tilos missing and the rest of the group looking towards her for guidance.

If they didn’t find anything very soon there was a big risk that their morale would sink too far down for it to ever be recovered, so it was important that they maintain what little they had. That used to be Säijla’s specialty but ever since things started to go badly she had lost it, not giving herself any time to be anyone else except the head of their organization. If she continued like this it would most likely end with her becoming a martyr, sacrificing herself when she didn’t even need to. 

“You’re overworking yourself, Säijla, you need to rest, it’s not good for you.” Derra tried to convince her, but she didn’t want to hear about it. She shot up from the desk and stared back at him angrily.

“I am not overworking myself, and even if I was it would be  _ necessary. _ ” She retaliated, offended to the fact that Derra would even propose such an idea. He sighed, lowering his head before looking back at her with a firm gaze.

“When was the last time you slept?” He quickly fired back, the question making Säijla understand his reasoning as she thought back on the recent sleepless nights. She shrunk back in her chair with regret, sorry for how she had snapped at Derra who was only trying to help her.

“Go get some rest, we’ll decide of what to do in the morning when Qell comes back.” He pronounced to her, lifting his hand away from her back as he stood up straight. Säijla sighed and pushed herself away from the desk mumbling out a reluctant ‘fine’ before practically throwing herself onto the bed at the other side of the room.

Derra took this as his cue to leave and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him carefully as he returned to his usual spot by the entrance. Though before he could do anything, Qell bursted in through the door, her arm swaying back and forth by her side as if it wasn’t responding to anything she wanted it to do. 

“Qell? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t come back until tomorrow?” Derra asked, surprised to see her just appear without any sort of warning, seeing as she was almost twelve hours earlier than expected. She turned to meet his gaze, her angry stare challenging his as she acknowledged his presence.

“You should be damn happy to even see me at all, for all that I know I should be dead.” She responded in her usual infuriated voice, moving her hand up to her shoulder where a larger bandage had been wrapped around her feathers, confirming that she had wounded herself in some way.

“What are you talking about? What the hell happened?” He asked worriedly while shooting up to go and inspect her wound, helping her take of the bandage to see if it was infected or not. While Derra examined her shoulder Qell, spoke up again and attempted to clear things up though still keeping to her agitated way of doing so.

“The council is not to be fucking trusted, it got infiltrated by Odium and their piece of shit servant or whatever.” Qell practically shouted out in anger, breaking away from Derra as he was checking on her old wound. 

“Odium is in control of the council? Since when? How long have they been in control?”

“For like a month or something, thats why I haven’t been able to come here until now, they got the place on full lockdown or some shit.” She answered spitefully, while reapplying the used bandage around her shoulder; tightly fastening it to her and ruffling the feathers underneath. 

“If you’re asking me, we should just storm that place and neutralize it in one clean sweep.” Qell continued, pulling out a chair from the table before and sitting down on it with a heavy sigh. Derra looked at her for a moment, not really sure on what to say before he also sat down at the opposite end of the table.

“I don’t know it that would be such a great idea with how things are at the current moment, Era’Tilos is still missing.” His voice dropped at the end of the sentence, worry setting in instead but he quickly shook it off as Qell spoke once again.

“Wait, so it’s actually true? The thing about Era just disappearing?” She asked hesitantly, not sure if it was the right thing to ask or not bur going for it anyways. There was a small pause between the two before he answered her, but his voice was now a little shaky, as if he didn’t really know himself.

“Yes, it is true. He went missing a few days ago, we haven’t heard anything from him or any sign that he has even done anything, he just vanished. Just like Wess apparently…” He let out a deep sigh after it and returned to what he had intended to do before Qell showed up, placing a large map of the land on the table before circling in a few locations. The room fell quiet, neither of them saying a word, the only sound being made was as the quill brushed against the surface of the paper. 

“So, what's the plan then?” She asked, defeated over how bleak their situation truly were. There didn’t really look like there was much they could do except continue with what had originally been the plan but with even less resources than before. 

“We have two things we can do, check out the source of the beacon, or storm the council. There are also a few other locations we need to look into but that can wait. We also need to find out how we’re supposed to imprison Odium again.” Derra answered as he pointed at each mark on the map as he gave snippets of information about it. Qell listened to him as he rambled on about the tasks, informing her about everything that she might need for what was to come.

They continued for a few hours, planning out what they should do and how they should do it, before having successfully assembled a plan that just might work. Having spent all their energy on the plan, they prepared their what they needed before going to their prepared quarters to rest, needing to be as well rested for the upcoming day as possible.

But, there was only one thing they hadn’t accounted for; that the war they would soon be waging was going to come crashing at their doorstep before they had time to set things in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And who would have guessed, another cliffhanger! (sorry) As I have been saying for quite some time, things are staring to happen, but now we are actually nearing the end! I don't know how many more chapters there will be but I'm gonna take a wild guess and say five more give or take. I do hope you're enjoying the story as it is and I look forward to seeing how it's going to go!

**Author's Note:**

> So, Im not that fast of a writer so there might be quite a gap of time in between chapters. Im quite nervous about this, but I really do hope that all of this will be worth it and that you, the reader atually enjoy this story. If you do have anything you would like to share feel fre to leave a comment or something along those lines, I would greatly appreciate it! ^w^


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